Glass F/6/1 

— 

Book_ 1 



9 




THE 

WEST INDIES 



AKD THE 



SPANISH MAIN. 



BY 

ANTHONY TROLLOPE, 

AUTHOR OF " DOCTOR THORNE," 14 ORLEY FARM," " THE BERTRAMS," 
ETC., ETC. 



SIXTH KDITION. 



LONDON : 

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
1867. 

[TJie right of translation is reserved*] 



) 



3*1 t n 5" 
'03 



\ 



I 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAP. PAGE 

I. INTRODUCTORY . , . . . . . 5 

II. JAMAICA — TOWN 15 

III. JAMAICA — COUNTRY 23 

IV. JAMAICA — BLACK MEN . . . . , 55 
V. JAMAICA — COLOURED MEN 72 

"VI. JAMAICA — WHITE MEN 87 

VII. JAMAICA — SUGAR 98 

VIII. JAMAICA — EMPEROR SOULOUQUE . . . 109 

IX. JAMAICA — GOVERNMENT^ 114 

X. CUBA . . . . . . . 125 

XI. THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS . . 119 

XII. BRITISH GUIANA 161 — 

XIII. BARBADOES 192 

XIV. TRINIDAD 206 

XV. ST. THOMAS 223 

XVI. NEW GRANADA, AND THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA . 230 
XVII. CENTRAL AMERICA. PANAMA TO SAN JOSE . .243 

XVIII. CENTRAL AMERICA. COSTA RICA — SAN JOSE . 253 

XIX. CENTRAL AMERICA. COSTA RICA — MOUNT IRAZU . 275 

XX. CENTRAL AMERICA. SAN JOSE TO GREYTOWN . 293 
XXI. CENTRAL AMERICA. RAILWAYS, CANALS. AND 

TRANSIT . . . . . . . 316 

XXII. THE BERMUDAS 345 

XXIII. CONCLUSION 365 



WEST INDIES AND SPANISH MAIN. 



CHAPTER L 

INTRODUCTORY. 

I AM beginning to write this book on board the brig 

— , trading between Kingston, in Jamaica, and Cien 

Fuegos, on the southern coast of Cuba. At the present 
moment there is not a puff of wind, neither land breeze 
nor sea breeze ; the sails are flapping idly against the masts ; 
there is not motion enough to give us the command of 
the rudder ; the tropical sun is shining through upon my 
head into the miserable hole which they have deluded me 
into thinking was a cabin. The marine people— the cap- 
tain and his satellites — are bound to provide me ; and all 
that they have provided is yams, salt pork, biscuit, and bad 
coffee. I should be starved but for the small ham— would 
that it had been a large one — which I thoughtfully pur- 
chased in Kingston ; and had not a kind medical friend, 
as he grasped me by the hand at Port Eoyal, stuffed a 
box of sardines into my pocket. He suggested two boxes. 
Would that I had taken them ! 

It is now the 25th January, 1859, and if I do not 
reach Cien Fuegos by the 28th, all this misery will have 
been in vain. I might as well in such case have gone 
to St. Thomas, and spared myself these experiences of 
the merchant navy. Let it be understood by all men 



6 



INTRODUCTORY. 



that in these latitudes the respectable, comfortable, well- 
to-do route from every place to every other place is via 
the little Danish island of St. Thomas. From Demerara 
to the Isthmus of Panama, you go by St. Thomas. 
From Panama to Jamaica and Honduras, you go by 
St. Thomas. From Honduras and Jamaica to Cuba 
and Mexico, you go by St. Thomas. From Cuba to the 
Bahamas, you go by St. Thomas — or did when this was 
written. The Eoyal Mail Steam Packet Company dis- 
pense all their branches from that favoured spot. 

But I was ambitious of a quicker transit and a less 
beaten path, and here I am lying under the lee of the 
land, in a dirty, hot, motionless tub, expiating my folly. 
We shall never make Cien Fuegos by the 28th, and 
then it will be eight days more before I can reach the 
Havana. May God forgive me all my evil thoughts ! 

Motionless, I said ; I wish she were. Progressless 
should have been my word. She rolls about in a nauseous 
manner, disturbing the two sardines which I have eco- 
nomically eaten, till I begin to fear that my friend's 
generosity will become altogether futile. To which result 
greatly tends the stench left behind it by the cargo 
of salt fish with which the brig was freighted when she 
left St. John, New Brunswick, for these parts. ' We 
brought but a very small quantity/ the skipper says. 
If so, that very small quantity was stowed above and 
below the very bunk which has been given up to me as a 
sleeping-place. Ugh ! 

c We are very poor,' said the blue-nosed skipper, when 
he got me on board. 4 Well ; poverty is no disgrace,' 
said I, as one does when cheering a poor man. 6 We are 
very poor indeed ; I cannot even offer you a cigar.' My 
cigar-case was immediately out of my pocket. After all, 
cigars are but as coals going to Newcastle when one in- 
tends to be in Cuba in four days. 



EKTRODD CTOEY. 



7 



'We are very poor indeed, sir/ said the blue-nosed 
skipper again when I brought out my solitary bottle of 
brandy — for I must acknowledge to a bottle of brandy 
as well as to the small ham. c T\ T e have not a drop of 
spirits of any kind on board.' Then I altered my mind, 
and began to feel that poverty was a disgrace. What 
business had this man to lure me into his stinking boat, 
telling me that he would take me to Cien Fuegoa, and 
feed me on the way, when he had not* a mouthful to 
eat, or a drop to drink, and could not raise a puff of wind 
to fill his sails ? 6 Sir,' said I, 6 brandy is dangerous in 
these latitudes, unless it be taken medicinally : as for 
myself, I take no other kind of physic' I think that 
poverty on shipboard is a disgrace, and should not be 
encouraged. Should I ever be on shore again, my views 
may become more charitable. 

Oh, for the good ship ' Atrato,' which I used to abuse 
with such objurgations because the steward did not come 
at my very first call ; because the claret was only half 
iced ; because we were forced to close our little whist at 
11 P.M., the serjeant-at-arms at that hour inexorably ex- 
tinguishing all the lights ! How rancorous were our 
tongues ! 6 This comes of monopoly,' said a stern and 
eloquent neighbour at the dinner-table, holding up to 
sight a somewhat withered apple. 6 And dis,' said a 
grinning Frenchman from Martinique with a curse, ex- 
hibiting a rotten walnut — ' dis, dis ! They give me dis 
for my moneys — for my thirty-five pounds !' And 
glancing round with angry eye, he dropped the walnut 
on to his plate. 

Apples ! and walnuts \ ! TYhat would I give for the 
6 Atrato ' now ; for my berth, then thought so small ; for- 
ks awning ; for a bottle of its soda water ; for one cut 
from one of all its legs of mutton; for two hours of 
its steam movement ! And yet it is only now that I am 



s 



INTRODUCTORY. 



learning to forgive that withered apple and that ill-iced 
claret. 

Having said so much about my present position, I 
shall be glad to be allowed to say a few words about my 
present person. There now exists an opportunity for 
doing so, as I have before me the Spanish passport, for 
which I paid sixteen shillings in Kingston the day be- 
fore I left it. It is signed simply Pedro Badan. But 
it is headed Don Pedro Badan Calderon de la Barca, 
which sounds to me very much as though I were to call 
myself Mr. Anthony Trollope Ben Jonson. To this 
will be answered that such might have been my name. 
But then I should not have signed myself Anthony Trol- 
lope. The gentleman, however, has doubtless been right 
according to his Spanish lights; and the name sounds 
very grand, especially as there is added to it two lines 
declaring how that Don Pedro Badan is a Caballero. He 
was as dignified a personage as a Spanish Don should 
be, and seemed somewhat particular about the sixteen 
shillings, as Spanish and other Dons generally are. 

He has informed me as to my ' Talla/ that it is Alta. 
I rather like the old man on the whole. Never before 
this have I obtained in a passport any more dignified de- 
scription of my body than robust. I certainly like the 
word 6 Alta.' , Then my eyes are azure. This he did 
not find out by the unassisted guidance of personal in- 
spection. ' Ojos, blue,' he suggested to me, trying to 
look through my spectacles. Not understanding 6 Ojos/ 
I said ' Yes.' My 6 cejas ' are 6 castanas/ and so is my 
cabello also. Castanas must be chestnut surely, — cejas 
may mean eyebrows — cabello is certainly hair. Now any 
but a Spaniard would have declared that as to hair, I was 
bald; and as to eyebrows, nothing in particular. My 
colour is sano. There is great comfort in that. I like the 
word sano. 6 Mens sana in corpore sano.' What has a 



INTEODUCTORY. 



9 



man to wish for but that ? I tliank thee once more, Don 
Pedro Badan Calderon de la Barca. 

But then conies the mystery. If I have a-ny personal 
vanity, it is wrapped up in my beard. It is a fine, manly 
article of dandyism, that wears well in all climates, and 
does not cost much, even when new. Well, what has the 
Don said of my beard ? 

It is poblada. I would give five shillings for the loan 
of a Spanish dictionary at this moment. Poblada ! Well, 
my first effort, if ever I do reach Cuba, shall be made 
with reference to that word. 

Oh; we are getting into the trade-winds, are we? 
Let iEolus be thanked at last. I should be glad to get 
into a monsoon or a simoom at the present moment, if 
there be monsoons and simooms in these parts. Yes ; it 
comes rippling down upon us with a sweet, cool, airy 
breeze ; the sails flap rather more loudly, as though they 
had some life in them, and then fill themselves with a 
grateful motion. Our three or four sailors rise from the 
deck where they have been snoring, and begin to stretch 
themselves. 4 You may put her about,' says the skipper ; 
for be it known that for some hours past her head has 
been lying back towards Port Royal. 6 We shall make 
fine track now, sir,' he says, turning to me. 6 And be at 
Cien Fuegos on the 28th ?' I demanded. 6 Perhaps, sir ; 
perhaps. We've lost twenty-four hours, sir, doing no- 
thing, you know.' 

Oh, wretched man that I am! the conveyance from 
Cien Fuegos to the Havana is but once a week. 

The sails are still flopping against the yard. It is now 
noon on the 29th of January, and neither captain, mate, 
crew, nor the one solitary passenger have the least idea 
when the good brig — — — will reach the port of Cien 
Fuegos ; not even whether she will reach it at all. 
Since that time we have had wind enough in all con- 



10 



INTKODUCTOBY. 



science — lovely breezes as the mate called them. But 
we have oversailed our mark ; and by how much no man 
on board this vessel can tell. Neither the captain nor 
the mate were ever in Cien Fuegos before ; and I begin 
to doubt whether they ever will be there. No one knows 
where we are. An old stove has, it seems, been stowed 
away right under the compass, giving a false bias to the 
needle, so that our only guide guides us wrong. There 
is not a telescope on board, I very much doubt the 
skipper's power of taking an observation, though he cer- 
tainly goes through the form of holding a machine like a 
brazen spider up to his eye about midday. My brandy 
and cigars are done ; and altogether we are none of us 
jolly. 

Flap, flap, flap ! roll, roll, roll ! The time passes in 
this way very tediously. And then there has come upon 
us all a feeling not expressed, though seen in the face of 
all, of utter want of confidence in our master. There is 
none of the excitement of danger, for the land is within a 
mile of us ; none of the exhaustion of work, for there 
is nothing to do. Of pork and biscuits and water there 
is, I believe, plenty. There is nothing tragic to be made 
out of it. But comic misery wears one quite as deeply as 
that of a sterner sort. 

It is hardly credible that men should be sent about a 
job for which they are so little capable, and as to which 
want of experience must be ?o expensive ! Here we are, 
beating up the coast of Cuba against the prevailing wind, 
knowing nothing of the points which should guide us, 
and looking out for a harbour without a sea-glass to as- 
sist our eyes. When we reach port, be it Cien Fuegos 
or any other, the first thing we must do will be to ask the 
name of it ! It is incredible to myself that I should have 
found my way into such circumstances. 

I have been unable not to recount my present immediate 



INTRODUCTORY. 



11 



troubles, they press with such weight upon my spirits ; 
but I have yet to commence my journey ings at their be- 
ginning. Hitherto I have but told under what circum- 
stances I began the actual work of writing. 

On the 17th of November, 1858, I left the port of 
Southampton in the good ship 'Atrato.' My purposed 
business, 0 cherished reader ! was not that of writing 
these pages for thy delectation ; but the accomplishment 
of certain affairs of State, of import grave or trifling as 
the case may be, with which neither thou nor I shall have 
further concern in these pages. So much it may be well 
that I should say, in order that my apparently purposeless 
wanderings may be understood to have had some method 
in them. 

And in the good ship fi Atrato ' I reached that emporium 
of travellers, St. Thomas, on the 2nd of December. We 
had awfully bad weather, of course, and the ship did won- 
ders. When men write their travels, the weather has 
always been bad, and the ship has always done wonders. 
We thought ourselves very uncomfortable — I, for one, now 
know better — and abused the company, and the captain, 
and the purser, and the purveyor, and the stewards, every 
day at breakfast and dinner ; not always with the eloquence 
of the Frenchman and his walnut, but very frequently 
with quite equal energy. But at the end of our journey 
we were all smiles, and so was the captain. He was tender 
to the ladies and cordial to the gentlemen ; and we, each 
in our kind, reciprocated his attention. On the whole, 0 
my readers ! if you are going to the West Indies, you may 
do worse than go in the ' Atrato. 5 But do not think too 
much of your withered apples. 

I landed at St. Thomas, where we lay for some hours ; 
and as I put my foot on the tropical soil for the first time, 
a lady handed me a rose, saying, 6 That's for love, dear. 5 
I took it, and said that it should be for love. She was 



12 



INTRODUCTORY. 



beautifully, nay, elegantly dressed. Her broad-brimmed 
hat was as graceful as are those of Eyde or Brighton. The 
well-starched skirts of her muslin dress gave to her upright 
figure that look of easy compressible bulk, which, let 
6 Punch ' do what it will, has become so sightly to our 
eyes. Pink gloves were on her hands. 6 That's for love, 
dear/ Yes, it shall be for love ; for thee and thine, if I 
can find that thou deservest it. What was it to me that 
she was as black as my boot, or that she had come to look 
after the ship's washing ? 

I shall probably have a word or two to say about St. 
Thomas; but not now. It is a Niggery-Hispano-Dano- 
Yankee-Doodle place; in which, perhaps, the Yankee- 
Doodle element, declaring itself in nasal twang and sherry 
cobblers, seems to be of the strongest flavour ; as undoubt- 
edly will be the case in many of these parts as years go on 
revolving. That nasal twang will sound as the Bocca 
Romana in coming fashionable western circles ; those 
sherry cobblers will be the Falernian drink of a people 
masters of half the world. I dined at the hotel, but should 
have got a better dinner on board the 6 Atrato/ in spite of 
the withered apples, 

From St. Thomas we went to Kingston, Jamaica, in 
the * Derwent/ We were now separated from the large 
host of Spaniards who had come with us, going to Peru, 
the Spanish Main, Mexico, Cuba, or Porto Rico ; and, to 
tell the truth, we were not broken-hearted on the occasion. 
Spaniards are bad fellow-travellers ; the Spaniard, at least, 
of the Western hemisphere. They seize the meats upon 
the table somewhat greedily ; their ablutions are not plen- 
tiful ; and their timidity makes them cumbersome. That 
they are very lions when facing an enemy on terra firma, 
I do not doubt. History, I believe, tells so much for them. 
But half a gale of wind lays them prostrate, at all hours 
except feeding-time. 



IXTKODUCTOKY. 



13 



We had no Spaniards in the 'Derwent,' but a happy 
jovial little crew of Englishmen and Englishwomen — or of 
English subjects rather, for the majority of them belonged 
to Jamaica. The bad weather was at an end, and all our 
nautical troubles nearly over ; so we ate and drank and 
smoked and danced, and swore mutual friendship, till the 
officer of the Board of Health visited us as we rounded 
the point at Port Eoyal, and again ruffled our tempers by 
delaying us for some thirty minutes under a broiling sun. 

Kingston harbour is a large lagune, formed by a long 
narrow bank of sand which runs out into the sea, com- 
mencing some three or four miles above the town of 
Kingston, and continuing parallel with the coast on which 
Kingston is built till it reaches a point some five or six 
miles below Kingston. This sandbank is called * The 
Palisades, 5 and the point or end of it is Port Eoyal. 
This is the seat of naval supremacy for Jamaica, and, as 
far as England is concerned, for the surrounding islands 
and territories. And here lies our flag-ship ; and here we 
maintain a commodore, a dock-yard, a naval hospital, a 
pile of invalided anchors, and all the usual adjuncts of 
such an establishment. Some years ago — I am not good 
at dates, but say seventy, if you will— Port Eoyal was 
destroyed by an earthquake. 

Those who are geographically inclined should be made 
to understand that the communication between Port Eoyal 
and Kingston, as, indeed, between Port Eoyal and any 
other part of the island, is by water. It is, I believe, on 
record that hardy Subs, and hardier Mids, have ridden 
along the Palisades, and not died from sun-stroke in the 
effort. But the chances are much against them. The 
ordinary ingress and egress is by water. The ferry-boats 
usually take about an hour, and the charge is a shilling. 
The writer of these pages, however, has been two hours 
and a quarter in the transit. 



( 14 ) 



CHAPTER II. 

JAMAICA — TOWN. 

Were it arranged by Fate that my future residence should 
be in Jamaica, I should certainly prefer the life of a 
country mouse. The town mice, in my mind, have but a 
bad time of it. Of all towns that I ever saw, Kingston is 
perhaps, on the whole, the least alluring, and is the more 
absolutely without any point of attraction for the stranger 
than any other. 

It is built down close to the sea — or rather, on the 
lagune which forms the harbour, has a southern aspect, 
and is hot even in winter. I have seen the thermometer 
considerably above eighty in the shade in December, and 
the mornings are peculiarly hot, so that there is no time 
at which exercise can be taken with comfort. At about 
10 A.M., a sea-breeze springs up, which makes it somewhat 
cooler than it is two hours earlier — that is, cooler in the 
houses. The sea-breeze, however, is not of a nature to 
soften the heat of the sun, or to make it even safe to walk 
far at that hour. Then, in the evening, there is no 
twilight, and when the sun is down it is dark. The 
stranger will not find it agreeable to walk much about 
Kingston in the dark. 

Indeed, the residents in the town, and in the neigh- 
bourhood of the town, never walk. Men, even young 
men, whose homes are some mile or half-mile distant from 



JAMAICA— TOWN. 



15 



their offices, ride or drive to their work as systematically 
as a man who lives at Watford takes the railway. 

Kingston, on a map — for there is a map even of King- 
ston — looks admirably well. The streets all run in paral- 
lels. There is a fine large square, plenty of public 
buildings, and almost a plethora of places of worship. 
Everything is named with propriety, and there could be 
no nicer town anywhere. But this word of promise to 
the ear is strangely broken when the performance is 
brought to the test. More than half the streets are not 
filled with houses. Those which are so filled, and those 
which are not, have an equally rugged, disreputable, and 
bankrupt appearance. The houses are mostly of wood, 
and are unpainted, disjointed, and going to ruin. Those 
which are built with brick, not unfrequently appear as 
though the mortar had been diligently picked out from 
the interstices. 

But the disgrace of Jamaica is the causeway of the 
streets themselves. There never was so odious a place in 
which to move. There is no pathway or trottoir to the 
streets, though there is very generally some such — I can- 
not call it accommodation — before each individual house. 
But as these are all broken from each other by steps up 
and down, as they are of different levels, and sometimes 
terminate abruptly without any steps, they cannot be 
used by the public. One is driven, therefore, into the 
middle of the street. But the street is neither paved, nor 
macadamized, nor prepared for traffic in any way. In dry 
weather it is a bed of sand, and in wet weather it is a 
watercourse. Down the middle of this the unfortunate 
pedestrian has to wade, with a tropical sun on his head ; 
and this he must do in a town which, from its position, is 
hotter than almost any other in the West Indies. It is 
no wonder that there should be but little walking. 

But the stranger does not find himself naturally in pos- 



16 



JAMAICA. 



session of a horse and carriage. He may have a saddle- 
horse for eight shillings ; but that is expensive as well as 
dilatory if he merely wishes to call at the post-office, or 
buy a pair of gloves. There are articles which they call 
omnibuses, and which ply cheap enough, and carry men 
to any part of the town for sixpence ; that is, they will 
do so if you can find them. They do not run from any 
given point to any other, but meander about through the 
slush and sand, and are as difficult to catch as the mus- 
quitoes. 

The city of Havana, in Cuba, is lighted at night by 
oil-lamps. The little town of Cien Fuegos, in the same 
island, is lighted by gas. But Kingston is not lighted 
at all ! 

We all know that Jamaica is not thriving as once it 
throve, and that one can hardly expect to find there all 
the energy of a prosperous people. But still I think 
that something might be done to redeem this town from 
its utter disgrace. Kingston itself is not without wealth. 
If what one hears on such subjects contains any indica- 
tions towards the truth, those in trade there are still 
doing welL There is a mayor, and there are aldermen. 
All the paraphernalia for carrying on municipal improve- 
ments are ready. If the inhabitants have about them- 
selves any pride in their locality, let them, in the name 
of common decency, prepare some sort of causeway in 
the streets; with some drainage arrangement, by which 
rain may run off into the sea without lingering for hours 
in every corner of the town. Nothing could be easier, 
for there is a fall towards the shore through the whole 
place. As it is now, Kingston is a disgrace to the coun- 
try that owns it. 

One is peculiarly struck also by the ugliness of the 
buildings — those buildings, that is, which partake in any 
degree of a public character— the churches and places 



TOW. 



17 



of worship, the public offices, and such like. We have 
no right, perhaps, to expect good taste so far away from 
any school in which good taste is taught ; and it may, 
perhaps, be said by some that we have sins enough of our 
own at home to induce us to be silent on this head. But 
it is singular that any man who could put bricks and 
stones and timber together should put them together in 
such hideous forms as those which are to be seen here. 

I never met a wider and a kinder hospitality than I 
did in Jamaica, but I neither ate nor drank hi any house 
in Kingston except my hotel, nor, as far as I can remem- 
ber, did I enter any house except in the way of business. 
And yex I was there — necessarily there, unfortunately — 
for some considerable time. The fact is, that hardly any 
Europeans, or even white Creoles, live in the town. They 
have country seats, pens as they call them, at some little 
distance. They hate the town, and it is no wonder they 
should do so. 

That which tends in part to the desolation of King- 
ston — or rather, to put the proposition in a juster form, 
which prevents Kingston from enjoying those advantages 
which would naturally attach to the metropolis of the 
island — is this : the seat of government is not there, but 
at Spanish Town. Then our naval establishment is at 
Port Royal. 

When a city is in itself thriving, populous, and of 
great commercial importance, it may be very well to 
make it wholly independent of the government. New 
York, probably, might be no whit improved were the 
National Congress to be held there; nor Amsterdam, 
perhaps, if the Hague were abandoned; but it would 
be a great thing for Kingston if Spanish Town were 
deserted. 

The Governor lives at the latter place, as do also those 
satellites or moons who revolve round the larger Imni- 



18 



JAMAICA. 



nary — the secretaries, namely, and executive officers, 
These in Jamaica are now so reduced in size that they 
could not perhaps do much for any city ; but they would 
do a little, and to Kingston any little would be acceptable. 
Then the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly 
sit at Spanish Town, and the members— at any rate of the 
latter body — are obliged to Jive there during some three 
months of the year, not generally in very comfortable 
lodgings. 

Eespectable residents in the island, who would pay 
some attention to the Governor if he lived at the principal 
town, find it impossible to undergo the nuisance of visit- 
ing Spanish Town, and in this way go neither to the one 
nor the other, unless when passing through Kingston on 
their biennial or triennial visits to the old country. 

And those visits to Spanish Town are indeed a nui- 
sance. In saying this, I reflect in noway on the Governor 
or the Governor's people. Were Gabriel Governor of 
Jamaica with only five thousand pounds a year, and had 
he a dozen angels with him as secretaries and aides-de- 
camp, mortal men would not go to them at Spanish Town 
after they had once seen of what feathers their wings were 
made. 

It is like the city of the dead. There are long streets 
there in which no human inhabitant is ever seen. In 
others a silent old negro woman may be sitting at an open 
door, or a child playing, solitary, in the dust. The Gover- 
nor's house — King's House as it is called — stands on one 
side of a square ; opposite is the house of the Assembly ; 
on the left, as you come out from the Governor's, are the 
executive offices and house of the Council, and on the 
right some other public buildings. The place would have 
some pretension about it did it not seem to be stricken 
with an eternal death. All the walls are of a dismal dirty 
yellow, and a stranger cannot but think that the colour is 



TOWX. 



19 



owing to the dreadfully prevailing disease of the country. 
In this square there are no sounds ; men and women never 
frequent it ; nothing enters it but sunbeams — and such 
sunbeams ! The glare from those walls seems to forbid that 
men and women should come there. 

The parched, dusty, deserted streets are all hot and 
perfectly without shade. The crafty Italians have built 
their streets so narrow that the sun can hardly enter them, 
except when he is in the mid heaven ; but there has been 
no such craft at Spanish Town. The houses are very low, 
and when there is any sun in the heavens it can enter 
those streets; and in those heavens there is always a 
burning, broiling sun. 

But the place is not wholly deserted. There is there 
the most frightfully hideous race of pigs that ever made 
a man ashamed to own himself a bacon- eating biped. I 
have never done much in pigs myself, but I believe that 
pigly grace consists in plumpness and comparative short- 
ness — in shortness, above all, of the face and nose. The 
Spanish Town pigs are never plump. They are the very 
ghosts of swine, consisting entirely of bones and bristles. 
Their backs are long, their ribs are long, their legs are 
long, but, above all, their heads and noses are hideously 
long. These brutes prowl about in the sun, and glare at 
the unfrequent strangers with their starved eyes, as though 
doubting themselves whether, by some little exertion, they 
might not become beasts of prey. 

The necessity which exists for white men going to 
Spanish Town to see the Governor results, I do not 
doubt, in some deaths every year. I will describe the 
first time I was thus punished. Spanish Town is thirteen 
miles from Kingston, and the journey is accomplished by 
railway in somewhat under an hour. The trains run 
about every four hours. On my arrival a public vehicle 
took me from the station up to King's House, and every 

C2 



20 



JAMAICA. 



thing seemed to be very convenient. The streets, cer- 
tainly, were rather dead, and the place hot ; but I was 
under cover, and the desolation did not seem to affect me. 
"When I was landed on the steps of the government-house, 
the first idea of my coming sorrows flitted across my mind. 
6 Where shall I call for you ?' said the driver ; 6 the train 
goes at a quarter-past four.' It was then one : and where 
was he to call for me ? and what was I to do with myself 
for three hours ? c Here,' I said ; ' on these steps.' What 
other place could I name? I knew no other place in 
Spanish Town. 

The Governor was all that was obliging — as Governors 
now-a-days always are — and made an appointment for me 
to come again on the following day, to see some one or 
say something, who or which could not be seen or said 
on that occasion. Thus some twenty minutes were ex- 
hausted, and there remained two hours and fifty minutes 
more upon my hands. 

How I wished that the big man's big men had not 
been so rapidly courteous — that they had kept me waiting 
for some hour or so, to teach me that I was among big 
people, as used to be done in the good old times ! In 
such event, I should at any rate have had a seat, though 
a hard one, and shelter from the sun. But not a moment's 
grace had been afforded me. At the end of twenty 
minutes I found myself again standing on those glaring 
steps. 

What should I do? Where should I go? Looking 
all around me, I did not see as much life as would serve 
to open a door if I asked for shelter ? I stood upon 
those desolate steps till the perspiration ran down my face 
with the labour of standing. Where was I to go ? What 
was I to do ? ' Inhospitalem Caucasum !' I exclaimed, as 
I slowly made my way down into the square. 

When an Englishman has nothing to do, and a certain 



TOWX. 



21 



time to wait, his one resource is to walk about. A 
Frenchman sits down and lights a cigar, an Italian goes 
to sleep, a German meditates, an American invents some 
new position for his limbs as far as possible asunder from 
that intended for them by nature, but an Englishman 
always takes a walk. I had nothing to do. Even under 
the full fury of the sun, walking is better than standing 
still. I would take a walk. 

I moved slowly round the square, and by the time that 
I had reached an opposite corner all my clothes were wet 
through. On I went, however, down one dead street and 
up another. I saw no one but the pigs, and almost envied 
them their fleshlessness. I turned another corner and I 
came upon the square again. That seemed to me to be 
the lowest depth of all that fiery Pandemonium, and with 
a quickened step I passed through but a corner of it. But 
the sun blazed even fiercer and fiercer. Should I go back 
and ask for a seat, if it were but on a bench in the govern- 
ment scullery, among the female negroes ? 

Something I must do, or there would soon be an end 
of me. There must be some inn in the place, if I could 
only find it. I was not absolutely in the midst of the 
Great Sahara. There were houses on each side of me, 
though they were all closed. I looked at my watch, and 
found that ten minutes had passed by since I had been 
on my legs. I thought I had wandered for an hour. 

And now I saw an old woman — the first human crea- 
ture I had seen since I left the light of the Governor's 
face ; the shade I should say, meaning to speak of it in 
the most complimentary terms. 'Madam,' said I, 'is 
there an inn here ; and if so, where may it be ?' — 6 Inn !' 
repeated the ancient negress, looking at me in a startled 
way. 6 Me know noting, massa and so she passed on. 
Inns in Jamaica are called lodging-houses, or else taverns ; 
but I did not find this out till afterwards. 



22 



JAMAICA. 



And then I saw a man walking quickly with a basket 
across the street, some way in advance of me. If I did 
not run I should miss him ; so I did run ; and I hallooed 
also. I shall never forget the exertion. ' Is there a 

public-house,' I exclaimed, feverishly, 'in this ■ 

place ?' I forget the exact word which should fill up the 
blank, but I think it was 6 blessed.' 

' Pubberlic-house, massa, in dis d — m place,' said the 
grinning negro, repeating my words after me, only that I 
know he used the offensive phrase which I have designated. 
6 Pubberlic-house ! what dat ?' and then he adjusted his 
basket on his head, and proceeded to walk on. 

By this time I was half blind, and my head reeled 
through the effects of the sun. But I could not allow 
myself to perish there, in the middle of Spanish Town, 
without an effort. It behoved me as a man to do some- 
thing to save my life. So I stopped the fellow, and at 
last succeeded in making him understand that I would 
give him sixpence if he would conduct me to some house 
of public entertainment. 

'Oh, de Vellington tavern,' said he ; and taking me to 
a corner three yards from where we stood, he showed me 
the sign-board. ' And now de two quatties,' he said. I 
knew nothing of quatties then, but I gave him the six- 
pence, and in a few minutes I found myself within the 
' Wellington.' 

It was a miserable hole, but it did afford me shelter. 
Indeed, it would not have been so miserable had I known 
at first, as I did some few minutes before I left, that there 
was a better room up stairs. But the people of the house 
could not suppose but what every one knew the ' Welling- 
ton ;' and thought, doubtless, that I preferred remaining 
below in the dirt. 

I was over two hours in this place, and even that was 
not pleasant. When I went up into the fashionable room 



TOWN. 



23 



above, I found there, among others, a negro of exceeding 
blackness. I do not know that I ever saw skin so purely 
black. He was talking eagerly with his friends, and after 
a while I heard him say, in a voice of considerable dignity, 
6 1 shall bring forward a motion on de subject in de house 
to-morrow.' So that I had not fallen into bad society. 

But even under these circumstances two hours spent in 
a tavern without a book, without any necessity for eating 
or drinking, is not pleasant ; and I trust that when I next 
visit Jamaica I may find the seat of government moved to 
Kingston. The Governor would do Kingston some good ; 
and it is on the cards that Kingston might return the 
compliment. 

The inns in Kingston rejoice in the grand name of halls. 
Not that you ask which is the best hall, or inquire at what 
hall your friend is staying ; but such is the title given to 
the individual house. One is the Date-tree Hall, another 
Blundle Hall, a third Barkly Hall, and so on. I took 
up my abode at Blundle Hall, and found that the land- 
lady in whose custody I had placed myself was a sister of 
good Mrs. Seacole. ' My sister wanted to go to India.' 
said my landlady, 6 with the army, you know. But 
Queen Victoria would not let her ; her life was too pre- 
cious.' So that Mrs. Seacole is a prophet, even in her own 
country. 

Much cannot be said for the West Indian hotels in 
general. By far the best that I met was at Cien Fuegos, 
in Cuba. This one, kept by Mrs. Seacole's sister, was not 
worse, if not much better, than the average. It was clean, 
and reasonable as to its charges. I used to wish that 
the patriotic lady who kept it could be induced to aban- 
don the idea that beefsteaks and onions, and bread and 
cheese and beer composed the only diet proper for an 
Englishman. But it is to be remarked all through the 
island that the people are fond of English dishes, and 



24 



JAMAICA. 



that they despise, or affect to despise, their own produc- 
tions. They will give you ox-taiL soup when turtle would 
be much cheaper. Eoast beef and beefsteaks are found 
at almost every meal. An immense deal of beer is con- 
sumed. When yams, avocado pears, the mountain cab- 
bage, plaintains, and twenty other delicious vegetables 
may be had for the gathering, people will insist on eating 
bad English potatoes ; and the desire for English pickles 
is quite a passion. This is one phase of that love for 
England which is so predominant a characteristic of the 
white inhabitants of the West Indies. 

At the inns, as at the private houses, the household 
servants are almost always black. The manners of these 
people are to a stranger very strange. They are not 
absolutely uncivil, except on occasions ; but they have an 
easy, free, patronizing air. If you find fault with them, 
they insist on having the last word, and are generally 
successful. They do not appear to be greedy of money ; 
rarely ask for it, and express but little thankfulness when 
they get it. At home, in England, one is apt to think 
that an extra shilling will go a long way with boots and 
chambermaid, and produce hotter water, more copious 
towels, and quicker attendance than is ordinary. But in 
the West Indies a similar result does not follow in a 
similar degree. And in the West Indies it is absolutely 
necessary that these people should be treated with dig- 
nity ; and it is not always very easy to reach the proper 
point of dignity. They like familiarity, but are singularly 
averse to ridicule ; and though they wish to be on good 
terms with you, they do not choose that these shall be 
reached without the proper degree of antecedent cere- 
mony. 

' Halloo, old fellow ! how about that bath ¥ I said one 
morning to a lad who had been commissioned to see a 
bath filled for me. He was cleaning boots at the time, and 



TOWN. 



25 



went on with his employment, sedulously, as though lie 
had not heard a word. But he was over sedulous, and I 
saw that he heard me. 

' I say, how about that bath?' I continued. But he did 
not move a muscle. 

6 Put down those boots, sir,' I said, going up to him ; 
6 and go and do as I bid you. 5 

6 Who you call fellor ? You speak to a gen'lman 
gen'lmanly, and den he fill de bath.' 

6 James,' said I, 6 might I trouble you to leave those 
boots, and see the bath filled for me ?' and I bowed to 
him. 

6 'Es, sir,' he answered, returning my bow ; 4 go at 
once.' And so he did, perfectly satisfied. Had he 
imagined, however, that I was quizzing him, in all pro- 
bability he would not have gone at all. 

There will be those who will say that I had received a 
good lesson ; and perhaps I had. But it would be rather 
cumbersome if we were forced to treat our juvenile ser- 
vants at home in this manner — or even those who are not 
juvenile. 

I must say this for the servants, that I never knew 
them to steal anything, or heard of their doing so from 
any one else. If any one deserves to be robbed, I deserve 
it ; for I leave my keys and my money everywhere, and 
seldom find time to lock my portmanteau. But my care- 
lessness was not punished in Jamaica. And this I think 
is the character of the people as regards absolute personal 
property — personal property that has been housed and 
garnered — that has, as it were, been made the possessor's 
very own. There can be no more diligent thieves than 
they are in appropriating to themselves the fruits of the 
earth while they are still on the trees. They will not un- 
derstand that this is stealing. Nor can much be said lor 
their honesty in dealing. There is a great difference 



26 



JAMAICA. 



between cheating and stealing in the minds of many men, 
whether they be black or white. 

There are good shops in Kingston, and I believe that 
men in trade are making money there. I cannot tell on 
what principle prices range themselves as compared with 
those in England. Some things are considerably cheaper 
than with us, and some much, very much dearer. A pair 
of excellent duck trousers, if I may be excused for alluding 
to them, cost me eighteen shillings when made to order. 
Whereas, a pair of evening white gloves could not be had 
under four-and-sixpence. That, at least, was the price 
charged, though I am bound to own that the shop-boy 
considerately returned me sixpence, discount for ready 
money. 

The men in the shops are generally of the coloured race 
and they are also extremely free and easy in their man- 
ners. From them this is more disagreeable than from the 
negroes. 6 Four-and-sixpence for white gloves !' I said ; 
* is not that high ?' — c Not at all, sir ; by no means. We 
consider it rather cheap. But in Kingston, sir, you must 
not think about little economies.' And he leered, at me in 
a very nauseous manner as he tied his parcel. However, 
I ought to forgive him, for did he not return to me six- 
pence discount, unasked ? 

There are various places of worship in Kingston, and 
the negroes are fond of attending them. But they love 
best that class of religion which allows them to hear the 
most of their own voices. They are therefore fond of 
being Baptists ; and fonder of the Wesleyans than of the 
Church of England. Many also are Eoman Catholics. Their 
singing-classes are constantly to be heard as one walks 
through the streets. No religion is worth anything to 
them which does not offer the allurement of some excite- 
ment. 

Very little excitement is to be found in the Church-of- 



TOWN. 



27 



England Kingston parish church. The church itself, with 
its rickety pews, and creaking doors, and wretched seats 
made purposely so as to render genuflexion impossible, 
and the sleepy, droning, somnolent service are exactly 
what was so common in England twenty years since ; but 
which are common no longer, thanks to certain much- 
abused clerical gentlemen. Not but that it may still be 
found in England if diligently sought for. 

But I must not finish my notice on the town of King- 
ston without a word of allusion to my enemies, the mus- 
quitoes. Let no European attempt to sleep there at any 
time of the year without musquito-curtains. If he do, it 
will only be an attempt ; which will probably end in fever 
and madness before morning. 

Xor will musquito-curtains suffice unless they are brushed 
out with no ordinary care, and then tucked in; and unless, 
also, the would-be-sleeper, after having cunningly crept 
into his bed at the smallest available aperture, carefully 
pins up that aperture. Your Kingston musquito is the 
craftiest of insects, and the most deadly. 



C 28 ) 



CHAPTER III. 

JAMAICA— COUNTRY. 

I HAVE spoken in disparaging terms of the chief town 
in Jamaica, but I can atone for this by speaking in very 
high terms of the country. In that island one would 
certainly prefer the life of the country mouse. There is 
scenery in Jamaica which almost equals that of Switzer- 
land and the Tyrol; and there is also, which is more 
essential, a temperature among the mountains in which a 
European can live comfortably. 

I travelled over the greater part of the island, and was 
very much pleased with it. The drawbacks on such a 
tour are the expensiveness of locomotion, the want of 
hotels, and the badness of the roads. As to cost, the 
tourist always consoles himself by reflecting that he is 
going to take the expensive journey once, and once only. 
The badness of the roads forms an additional excitement ; 
and the want of hotels is cured, as it probably has been 
caused, by the hospitality of the gentry. 

And they are very hospitable — and hospitable, too, 
under adverse circumstances. In olden times, when 
nobody anywhere was so rich as a Jamaica planter, it 
was not surprising that he should be always glad to see 
his own friends and his friends' friends, and their friends. 
Such visits dissipated the ennui of his own life, and the 
expense was not appreciable — or, at any rate, not unde- 



JAMAICA. — COUNTRY. 



29 



sirable. An open house was his usual rule of life. But 
matters are much altered with him now. If he be a 
planter of the olden days, he will have passed through 
fire and water in his endeavours to maintain his position. 
If, as is more frequently the case, he be a man of new 
date on his estate, he will probably have established 
himself with a small capital ; and he also will have to 
struggle. But, nevertheless, the hospitality is maintained, 
perhaps not on the olden scale, yet on a scale that by no 
means requires to be enlarged. 

4 It is rather hard on us,' said a young planter to me, 
with whom I was on terms of sufficient intimacy to dis- 
cuss such matters — ' We send word to the people at 
home that we are very poor. They won't quite believe 
us, so they send out somebody to see. The somebody 
comes, a pleasant-mannered fellow, and we kill our little 
fatted calf for him. Probably it is only a ewe lamb. We 
bring out our bottle or two of the best, that has been put 
by for a gala day, and so we make his heart glad. He 
goes home, and what does he say of us ? " These Jamaica 
planters are princes — the best fellows living; I liked 
them amazingly : but as for their poverty, don't believe 
a word of it. They swim in claret, and usually bathe in 
champagne." Now that is hard, seeing that our common 
fare is salt fish and rum and water.' I advised him in 
future to receive such inquirers with his ordinary fare 
only. c Yes/ said he, 6 and then we should get it on the 
other cheek. We should be abused for our stinginess. 
No Jamaica man could stand that.' 

It is of course known that the sugar-cane is the chief 
production of Jamaica; but one may travel for days in 
the island and only see a cane-piece here and there. By 
far the greater portion of the island is covered with wild 
wood and jungle — what is there called bush. Through 
this, on an occasional favourable spot, and very frequently 



30 



JAMAICA. 



on the road-sides, one sees the gardens or provision-grounds 
of the negroes. These are spots of land cultivated by 
them, for which they either pay rent, or on which, as 
is quite as common, they have squatted without payment of 
any rent. 

These provision-grounds are very picturesque. They 
are not filled, as a peasant's garden in England or in 
Ireland is filled, with potatoes and cabbages, or other 
vegetables similarly uninteresting in their growth; but 
contain cocoa-trees, breadfruit-trees, oranges, mangoes, 
limes, plantains, jack-fruit, sour-sop, avocado pears, and 
a score of others, all of which are luxuriant trees, some of 
considerable size, and all of them of great beauty. The 
breadfruit-tree and the mango are especially lovely, and 
I know nothing prettier than a grove of oranges in 
Jamaica. In addition to this, they always have the 
yam, which is with the negro somewhat as the potato is 
with the Irishman ; only that the Irishman has nothing 
else, whereas the negro generally has either fish or meat, 
and has also a score of other fruits besides the yam. 

The yam, too, is picturesque in its growth. As with 
the potato, the root alone is eaten, but the upper part is 
fostered and cared for as a creeper, so that the ground 
may be unencumbered by its thick tendrils. Support is 
provided for it as for grapes or peas. Then one sees also 
in these provision-grounds patches of coffee and arrowroot, 
and occasionally also patches of sugar-cane. 

A man wishing to see the main features of the whole 
island, and proceeding from Kingston as his head-quarters, 
must take two distinct tours, one to the east and the other 
to the west. The former may be best done on horseback, 
as the roads are, one may say, non-existent for a consider- 
able portion of the way, and sometimes almost worse than 
non-existent in other places. 

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Jamaica 



COUNTRY. 



31 



is the copiousness of its rivers. It is said that its original 
name Xaymaea, signifies a country of streams ; and it 
certainly is not undeserved. This copiousness, though it 
adds to the beauty, as no doubt it does also to its salubrity 
and fertility, adds something too to the difficulty of loco- 
motion. Bridges have not been built, or, sad to say, have 
been allowed to go to destruction. One hears that this 
river or that river is ' down,' whereby it is signified that 
the waters are swollen ; and some of the rivers when so 
down are certainly not easy of passage. Such impedi- 
ments are more frequent in the east than elsewhere, and 
on this account travelling on horseback is the safest as 
well as the most expeditious means of transit. I found 
four horses to be necessary — one for the groom, one for my 
clothes, and two for myself. A lighter weight might have 
done with three. 

An Englishman feels some bashfulness in riding up to 
a stranger's door with such a cortege, and bearing as an 
introduction a message from somebody else to say that you 
are to be entertained. But I always found that such a 
message was a sufficient passport. 6 It is our way,' one 
gentleman said to me, in answer to my apology. ' When 
four or five come in for dinner after ten o'clock at night, 
we do think it hard, seeing that meat won't keep in this 
country/ 

Hotels, as an institution, are, on the whole, a comfort- 
able arrangement. One prefers, perhaps, ordering one's 
dinner to asking for it ; and many men delight in the 
wide capability of finding fault which an inn affords. 
But they are very hostile to the spirit of hospitality. 
The time will soon come when the backwoodsman will 
have his tariff for public accommodation, and an Arab 
will charge you a fixed price for his pipe and cup of coffee 
in the desert. But that era has not yet been reached in 
Jamaica. 



m 



JAMAICA. 



Crossing the same river four- and- twenty times is 
tedious ; especially if this be done in heavy rain, when 
the road is a narrow track through thickly-wooded 
ravines, and when an open umbrella is absolutely neces- 
sary. But so often had we to cross the Waag-water in 
our route from Kingston to the northern shore. 

It was here that I first saw the full effect of tropical 
vegetation, and I shall never forget it. Perhaps the 
most graceful of all the woodland productions is the 
bamboo. It grows either in clusters, like clumps of 
trees in an English park, or, as is more usual when found 
in its indigenous state, in long rows by the riversides. 
The trunk of the bamboo is a huge hollow cane, bearing 
no leaves except at its head. One such cane alone would 
be uninteresting enough. But their great height, the 
peculiarly graceful curve of their growth, and the exces- 
sive thickness of the drooping foliage of hundreds of them 
clustered together produce an effect which nothing can 
surpass. 

The cotton-tree is almost as beautiful when standing 
alone. The trunk of this tree grows to a magnificent 
height, and with magnificent proportions : it is frequently 
straight ; and those which are most beautiful throw out 
no branches till they have reached a height greater than 
that of an ordinary tree with us. Nature, in order to 
sustain so large a mass, supplies it with huge spurs at the 
foot, which act as buttresses for its support, connecting 
the roots immediately with the trunk as much as twenty 
feet above the ground. I measured more than one, 
which, including the buttresses, were over thirty feet in 
circumference. Then from its head the branches break 
forth in most luxuriant profusion, covering an enormous 
extent of ground with their shade. 

But the most striking peculiarity of these trees consists 
in the parasite plants by which they are enveloped, and 



COUNTRY. 



33 



which hang from their branches down to the ground with 
tendrils of wonderful strength. These parasites are of 
various kinds, the fig being the most obdurate with its 
embraces. It frequently may be seen that the original 
tree has departed wholly from sight, and I should ima- 
gine almost wholly from existence ; and then the very 
name is changed, and the cotton-tree is called a fig-tree. 
In others the process of destruction may be observed, 
and the interior trunk may be seen to be stayed in its 
growth and stunted in its measure by the creepers which 
surround it. This pernicious embrace the natives de- 
scribe as 6 The Scotchman hugging the Creole.' The 
metaphor is sufficiently satirical upon our northern friends, 
w T ho are supposed not to have thriven badly in their visits 
to the Western islands. 

But it often happens that the tree has reached its full 
growth before the parasites have fallen on it, and then, 
in place of being strangled, it is adorned. Every branch 
is covered with a wondrous growth — with plants of a 
thousand colours and a thousand sorts. Some droop with 
long and graceful tendrils from the boughs, and so touch 
the ground ; while others hang in a ball of leaves and 
flowers, which swing for years, apparently without chang- 
ing their position. 

The growth of these parasite plants must be slow, 
though it is so very rich. A gentleman with whom I 
was staying, and in whose grounds I saw by far the most 
lovely tree of this description that met my sight, assured 
me that he had watched it closely for more than twenty 
years, and that he could trace no difference in the size or 
arrangement of the parasite plants by which it was 
surrounded. 

We w T ent across the island to a little village called 
Annotta J6ay, traversing the Waag-water twenty-four 
times, as I have said ; and from thence through the 

D 



34 



JAMAICA. 



parishes of Metcalf and St. George, to Port Antonio. 
c Fuit ilium et ingens gloria.' This may certainly be 
said of Port Antonio and the adjacent district. It was 
once a military station, and the empty barracks, stand- 
ing so beaiitifully over the sea, on an extreme point of 
land, are now waiting till time shall reduce them to 
ruin. The place is utterly desolate, though not yet 
broken up in its desolation,, as such buildings quickly 
become when left wholly untenanted. A rusty cannon 
or two still stand at the embrasures, watching the entrance 
to the fort ; and among the grass we found a few metal 
balls, the last remains of the last ordnance supplies. 

But Port Antonio was once a goodly town, and the 
country round it, the parish of Portland, is as fertile as 
any in the island. But now there is hardly a sugar estate 
in the whole parish. It is given up to the growth of 
yams, cocoas, and plantains. It has become a provision- 
ground for negroes, and the palmy days of the town are 
of course gone. 

Nevertheless, there was a decent little inn at Port 
Antonio, which will always be memorable to me on ac- 
count of the love sorrows of a young maiden whom I 
chanced to meet there. The meeting was in this wise : — 

I was sitting in the parlour of the inn, after dinner, 
when a young lady walked in, dressed altogether in white. 
And she was well dressed, and not without the ordinary 
decoration of crinoline and ribbons. She was of the 
coloured race ; and her jet black, crisp, yet wavy hair 
was brushed back in a becoming fashion. Whence she 
came or who she was I did not know, and never learnt. 
That she was familiar in the house I presumed from her 
moving the books and little ornaments on the table, and 
arranging the cups and shells upon a shelf. ' Heigh-ho !' 
she ejaculated, when I had watched her for about a 
minute. 



COUNTRY. 



35 



I hardly knew how to accost her, for I object to the 
word Miss, as standing alone ; and yet it was necessary 
that I should accost her. 4 Ah, well: heigh-ho!' she 
repeated. It was easy to perceive that she had a grief 
to tell. 

6 Lady,' said I — I felt that the address was some- 
what stilted, but in the lack of any introduction I knew 
not how else to begin — - Lady, I fear that you are in 
sorrow ?' 

6 Sorrow enough !' said she. 6 I'se in de deepest sor- 
row. Heigh-ho me ! Well, de world will end some day/ 
and turning her face full upon me, she crossed her hands. 
I was seated on a sofa, and she came and sat beside me, 
crossing her hands upon her lap, and looking away to the 
opposite wall. I am not a very young man ; and my 
friends have told me that I show strongly that steady 
married appearance of a paterfamilias which is so apt to 
lend assurance to maiden timidity. 

' It will end some day for us all/ I replied. 6 But with 
you, it has hardly yet had its beginning.' 

6 'Tis a very bad world, and sooner over de better. To 
be treated so's enough to break any girl's heart ; it is ! 
My heart's clean broke, I know dat.' And as she put 
both her long, thin dark hands to her side, I saw that she 
had not forgotten her rings. 

c It is love then that ails you ?' 

* No !' She said this very sharply, turning full round 
upon me, and fixing her large black eyes upon mine. 
' Xo ; I don't love him one bit ; not now, and never again. 
Xo ; not if he were down dere begging.' And she stamped 
her little foot upon the ground as though she had an 
imaginary neck beneath her heel. 

e But you did love him ?' 

' Yes.' She spoke very softly now, and shook her 
head gently. 4 1 did love him — oh, so much ! He was 

D 2 



36 



JAMAICA. 



so handsome, so nice! I shall never see such a man 
again : such eyes ; such a mouth ! and then his nose ! 
He was a Jew, you know.' 

I had not known it before, and received the information 
perhaps with some little start of surprise. 

6 Served me right ; didn't it ? And I'se a Baptist, 
you know. They'd have read me out, I know dat. But 
I didn't seem to mind it den.' And then she gently 
struck one hand with the other, as she smiled sweetly in 
my face. The trick is customary with the coloured wo- 
men in the West Indies when they have entered upon a 
nice, familiar, pleasant bit of chat. At this period I felt 
myself to be sufficiently intimate with her to ask her name. 

{ Josephine ; dat's my name. D'you like dat name ?' 

6 It's as pretty as its owner — nearly.' 

' Pretty ! no ; I'se not pretty. If I was pretty, he'd 
not have left me so. He used to call me Feeny.' 

' What ! the Jew did.' I thought it might be well 
to detract from the merit of the lost admirer. ' A girl 
like you should have a Christian lover.' 

6 Dat's what dey all says.' 

6 Of course they do : you ought to be glad it's over.' 

6 1 ain't tho' ; not a bit ; tho' I do hate him so. Oh, 
I hate him ; I hate him ! I hate him worse dan poison.' 
And again her little foot went to work. I must confess 
that it was a pretty foot ; and as for her waist, I never 
saw one better turned, or more deftly clothed. Her little 
foot went to work upon the floor, and then clenching her 
small right hand, she held it up before my face as though 
to show me that she knew how to menace. 

I took her hand in mine and told her that those fingers 
had not been made for threats. ' You are a Christian,' 
said I, 6 and should forgive.' 

e I'se a Baptist,' she replied ; 6 and in course I does 
forgive him : I does forgive him ; but — ! He'll be 



COUNTRY. 



37 



wretched in this life, I know ; and she — she'll be wretch- 
ed er ; and when he dies — oh-h-h-h !' 

In that prolonged expression there was a curse as deep 
as any that Ernulphus ever gave. Alas ! such is the 
forgiveness of too many a Christian ! 

' As for me, I wouldn't demean myself to touch de 
hem of her garment ! Poor fellow ! What a life he'll 
have ; for she's a virgo with a vengeance.' This at the 
moment astonished me ; but from the whole tenor of the 
lady's speech I was at once convinced that no satirical 
allusion was intended. In the hurry of her fluttering 
thoughts she had merely omitted the letter ' a.' It was 
her rival's temper, not her virtue, that she doubted. 

fi The Jew is going to be married then ?' 

c He told her so ; but p'raps he'll jilt her too, you 
know.' It was easy to see that the idea was not an un- 
pleasant one. 

6 And then he'll come back to you ?' 

8 Yes. yes ; and I'll spit at him \ and in the fury of 
her mind she absolutely did perform the operation. ' I 
wish he would; I'd sit so, and listen to him;' and she 
crossed her hands and assumed an air of dignified quies- 
cence which well became her. * I'd listen every word he 
say ; just so. Every word till he done ; and I'd smile ' — 
and she did smile — ; and den when he offer me his hand ' 
— and she put out her own — 1 I'd spit at him, and leave 
him so/ And rising majestically from her seat she stalked 
out of the room. 

As she fully closed the door behind her, I thought that 
the interview was over, and that I should see no more of 
my fair friend ; but in this I was mistaken. The door 
was soon reopened, and she again seated herself on the 
sofa beside me. 

6 Your heart would permit of your doing that ?' said I ; 
i and he with such a beautiful nose ?' 



38 



JAMAICA. 



' Yes ; it would. I'd 'spise myself to take him now, 
if he was ever so beautiful. But I'se sure of this, I'll 
never love no oder man — never again. He did dance so 
genteelly.' 

* A Baptist dance !' I exclaimed. 

c Well ; it wasn't de ting, was it ? And I knew I'd be 
read out. Oh, but it was so nice ! I'll never have no more 
dancing now. I've just taken up with a class now, you 
know, since he's gone.' 

' Taken up with a class ?' 

' Yes ; I teaches the nigger children ; and I has a card 
for the minister. I got four dollars last week, and you 
must give me something.' 

Now I hate Baptists — as she did her lover — like poi- 
son; and even under such pressure as this I could not 
bring myself to aid in their support. 

6 You very stingy man! Caspar Isaacs' — he was her 
lost lover — 6 gave me a dollar.' 

6 But perhaps you gave him a kiss.' 

6 Perhaps I did,' said she. 6 But you may be quite 
sure of this, quite; I'll never give him anoder,' and 
she again slapped one hand upon the other, and com- 
pressed her lips, and gently shook her head as she made 
this declaration. 6 Til never give him anoder kiss — dat's 
sure as fate.' 

I had nothing further to say, and began to feel that I 
ought not to detain the lady longer. We sat together, 
however, silent for a while, and then she arose and spoke 
to me standing. 6 I'se in a reg'lar difficulty now, how- 
ever ; and it's just about that I am come to ask you.' 

* Well, Josephine, anything that I can do to help 

you 7~'. 

6 'Tain't much ; I only want your advice. I'se going 
to Kingston, you see.' 

6 Ah, you'll find another lover there.' 



COUNTRY. 



39 



i It's not for dat den, for I don't want none ; but I'se 
going anyways, 'cause I live dere.' 
' Oh, you live at Kingston ?' 

* Course I does. And I'se no ways to go but just in de 
droger ' — the West Indian coasting vessels are so called. 

' Don't you like going in the droger ?' I asked. 
1 Oh, yes ; I likes it well enough.' 
' Are you sea-sick ?' 
■ Oh, no.' 

6 Then what's the harm of the droger ?' 

1 Why, you see ' — and she turned away her face and 
looked towards the window — 6 why you see, Isaacs is the 
captain of her, and 'twill be so odd like.' 

6 You could not possibly have a better opportunity for 
recovering all that you have lost.' 

< You tink so ?' 

* Certainly.' 

' Den you know noting about it. I will never recover 
noting of him, never. Bah ! But I tell you what I'll do. 
I'll pay him my pound for my passage ; and den it'll be 
a purely 'mercial transaction.' 

On this point I agreed with her, and then she offered 
me her hand with the view of bidding me farewell. 
4 Good-bye, Josephine,' I said ; 1 perhaps you would be 
.happier with a Christian husband.' 

6 P'raps I would ; p'raps better with none at all. But 
I don't tink I'll ever be happy no more. 'Tis so dull : 
good-bye.' Were I a girl, I doubt whether I also would 
not sooner dance with a Jew than pray with a Baptist. 

' Good-bye, Josephine.' I pressed her hand, and so 
she went, and I neither saw nor heard more of her. 

There was not about my Josephine all the pathos of 
Maria ; nor can I tell my story as Sterne told his. But 
Josephine in her sorrow was I think more true to human 
nature than Maria. It may perhaps be possible that 



40 



JAMAICA. 



Sterne embellished his facts. I, at any rate, have not 
done that. 

I had another adventure at Port Antonio. About two 
o'clock in the morning there was an earthquake, and Ave 
were all nearly shaken out of our beds. Some one rushed 
into my room, declaring that not a stone would be left 
standing of Port Eoyal. There were two distinct blows, 
separated by some seconds, and a loud noise was heard. 
I cannot say that I was frightened, as I had not time to 
realize the fact of the earthquake before it was all over. 
No harm was done, I believe, anywhere, beyond the dis- 
severance of a little plaster from the walls. 

The largest expanse of unbroken cane-fields in Jamaica 
is at the extreme south-east, in the parish of St. George's 
in the East. Here I saw a plain of about four thousand 
acres under canes. It looked to be prosperous ; but I 
was told by the planter with whom I was staying that 
the land had lately been deluged with water ; that the 
canes were covered with mud ; and that the crops would 
be very short. Poor Jamaica ! It seems as though all 
the elements are in league against her. 

I was not sorry to return to Kingston from this trip, for 
I was tired of the saddle. In Jamaica everybody rides, 
but nobody seems to get much beyond a walk. Now to 
me there is no pace on horseback so wearying as an un- 
broken walk. I did goad my horse into trotting, but it 
was clear that the animal was not used to it. 

Shortly afterwards I went to the west. The distances 
here were longer, but the journey was made on wheels, 
and was not so fatiguing. Moreover, I stayed some little 
time with a friend in one of the distant parishes of the 
island. The scenery during the whole expedition was 
very grand. The road goes through Spanish Town, and 
then divides itself, one road going westward by the 



COUNTKY. 



41 



northern coast, and the other by that to the south. I 
went by the former, and began my journey by the bog or 
bogue walk, a road through a magnificent ravine, and 
then over Mount Diabolo. The Devil assumes to himself 
all the finest scenery in all countries. Of a delicious 
mountain tarn he makes his punch-bowl ; he loves to leap 
from crag to crag over the wildest ravines ; he builds pic- 
turesque bridges in most impassable sites-; and makes roads 
over mountains at gradients not to be attempted by the 
wildest engineer. The road over Mount Diabolo is very 
fine, and the view back to Kingston very grand. 

From thence I went down into the parish of St. Anns, 
on the northern side. They all speak of St. Anns as 
being the most fertile district in the island. The inhabi- 
tants are addicted to grazing rather than sugarmaking, 
and thrive in that pursuit very well. But all Jamaica is 
suited for a grazing-ground, and all the West Indies 
should be the market for their cattle. 

On the northern coast there are two towns, Falmouth 
and Montego Bay, both of which are, at any rate in ap- 
pearance, more prosperous than Kingston. I cannot say 
that the streets are alive with trade ; but they do not 
appear to be so neglected, desolate, and wretched as the 
metropolis or the seat of government. They have jails 
and hospitals, mayors and magistrates, and are, except in 
atmosphere, very like small country towns in England. 

The two furthermost parishes of Jamaica are Hanover 
and Westmoreland, and I stayed for a short time with a 
gentleman who lives on the borders of the two. I cer- 
tainly was never in a more lovely country. He was a 
sugar planter ; but the canes and sugar, which, after all, 
are ugly and by no means savoury appurtenances, were 
located somewhere out of sight. As far as I myself might 
know, from what I saw, my host's ordinary occupations 
were exactly those of a country gentleman in England. 



42 



JAMAICA. 



He fished and shot, and looked after his estate, and acted 
as a magistrate ; and over and above this, was somewhat 
particular about his dinner, and the ornamentation of the 
land immediately round his house. I do not know that 
Fate can give a man a pleasanter life. If, however, he 
did at unseen moments inspect his cane-holes, and employ 
himself among the sugar hogsheads and rum puncheons, 
it must be acknowledged that he had a serious drawback 
on his happiness. 

Country life in Jamaica certainly has its attractions. 
The day is generally begun at six o'clock, when a cup of 
coffee is brought in by a sable minister. I believe it is 
customary to take this in bed, or rather on the bed ; for 
in Jamaica one's connection with one's bed does not amount 
to getting into it. One gets within the mosquito net, and 
then plunges about with a loose sheet, which is sometimes 
on and sometimes off. With the cup of coffee comes a 
small modicum of dry toast. 

After that the toilet progresses, not at a rapid pace. 
A tub of cold water and dilettante dressing will do some- 
thing more than kill an hour, so that it is half-past seven 
or eight before one leaves one's room. When one first 
arrives in the West Indies, one hears much of early morn- 
ing exercise, especially for ladies ; and for ladies, early 
morning exercise is the only exercise possible. But it 
appeared to me that I heard more of it than I saw. And 
even as regards early travelling, the eager promise was 
generally broken. An assumed start at five A.M. usually 
meant seven ; and one at six, half-past eight. This, how- 
ever, is the time of day at which the sugar grower is pre- 
sumed to look at his canes, and the grazier to inspect his 
kine. At this hour — eight o'clock, that is— the men ride, 
and sometimes also the ladies. And when the latter cere- 
mony does take place, there is no pleasanter hour in all 
the fbur-and-twenty. 



COUNTRY. 



43 



At ten or half-past ten the nation sits down to break- 
fast ; not to a meal, rny dear Mrs. Jones, consisting of tea 
and bread and butter, with two eggs for the master of the 
family and one for the mistress ; but a stout, solid ban- 
quet, consisting of fish, beefsteaks — a breakfast is not a 
breakfast in the West Indies without beefsteaks and 
onions, nor is a dinner so to be called without bread and 
cheese and beer — potatoes, yams, plaintains, eggs, and 
half a dozen 6 tinned ' productions, namely, meats sent 
from England in tin cases. Though they have every 
delicacy which the world can give them of native pro- 
duction, all these are as nothing, unless they also have 
something from England. Then there are tea and choco- 
late upon the table, and on the sideboard beer and wine, 
rum and brandy. Tis so that they breakfast at rural 
quarters in Jamaica. 

Then comes the day. Ladies may not subject their 
fair skin to the outrages of a tropical sun, and therefore, 
unless on very special occasions, they do not go out 
between breakfast and dinner. That they occupy them- 
selves well during the while, charity feels convinced. 
Sarcasm, however, says that they do not sin from over 
energy. For my own part I do not care a doit for sar- 
casm. When their lords reappear, they are always found 
smiling, well-dressed, and pretty ; and then after dinner 
they have but one sin — there is but one drawback — they 
will go to bed at nine o'clock. 

But by the men during the day it did not seem to me 
that the sun was much regarded, or that it need be much 
regarded. One cannot and certainly should not walk 
much ; and no one does walk. A horse is there as a 
matter of course, and one walks upon that ; not a great 
beast sixteen hands high, requiring all manner of levers 
between its jaws, capricoling and prancing about, and 
giving a man a deal of work merely to keep his seat and 



JAMAICA. 



look stately ; but a canny little quiet brute, fed chiefly on 
grass, patient of the sun, and not inclined to be trouble- 
some. With such legs under him, and at a distance 
of some twenty miles from the coast, a man may get 
about in Jamaica pretty nearly as well as he can in 
England. 

I saw various grazing farms — pens they are here called 
— while I was in this part of the country ; and I could 
not but fancy that grazing should in Jamaica be the 
natural and most beneficial pursuit of the proprietor, as 
on the other side of the Atlantic it certainly is in Ireland. 
I never saw grass to equal the guinea grass in some of 
the parishes ; and at Knockalva I looked at Hereford 
cattle which I have rarely, if ever, seen beaten at any 
agricultural show in England. At present the island 
does not altogether supply itself with meat ; but it might 
do so, and supply, moreover, nearly the whole of the re- 
maining West Indies. Proprietors of land say that the 
sea transit is too costly. Of course it is at present ; the 
trade not yet existing ; for indeed at present there is no 
means of such transit. But screw steamers now always 
appear quickly enough wherever freight offers itself ; and 
if the cattle were there, they would soon find their way 
down to the Windward Islands. 

But I am running away from my day. The inspection 
of a pen or two, perhaps occasionally of the sugar works 
when they are about, soon wears through the hours, and 
at five preparations commence for the six o'clock dinner. 
The dressing again is a dilettante process, even for the 
least dandified of mankind. It is astonishing how much 
men think, and must think, of their clothes when within 
the tropics. Dressing is necessarily done slowly, or else 
one gets heated quicker than one has cooled down. And 
then one's clothes always want airing, and the supply of 
clean linen is necessarily copious, or, at any rate, should 



COUNTRY. 



45 



be so. Let no man think that he can dress for dinner in 
ten minutes because he is accustomed to do so in England. 
He cannot brush his hair, or pull on his boots, or fasten 
his buttons at the same pace he does at home. He dries 
his face very leisurely, and sits down gravely to rest 
before he draws on his black pantaloons. 

Dressing for dinner, however, is de rigueur in the West 
Indies. If a black coat, &c, could be laid aside anywhere 
as barbaric, and light loose clothing adopted, this should 
be done here. The soldiers, at least the privates, are 
already dressed as Zouaves; and children and negroes 
are hardly dressed at all. But the visitor, victim of 
tropical fashionable society, must appear in black clothing, 
because black clothing is the thing in England. 'The 
Governor won't see you in that coat,' was said to me once 
on my way to Spanish Town, -■ even on a morning.' The 
Governor did see me, and as far as I could observe did 
not know whether or no I had on any coat. Such, how- 
ever, is the feeling of the place. But we shall never get 
to dinner. 

This again is a matter of considerable importance, as, 
indeed, where is it not ? While in England we are all 
writing letters to the 6 Times,' to ascertain how closely we 
can copy the vices of Apicius on eight hundred pounds a 
year, and complaining because in our perverse stupidity 
we cannot pamper our palates with sufficient variety, it is 
not open to us to say a word against the luxuries of a 
West Indian table. We have reached the days when a 
man not only eats his best, but complains bitterly and 
publicly because he cannot eat better ; when we sigh out 
loud because no Horace will teach us where the sweetest 
cabbage grows ; how best to souse our living poultry, so 
that their fibres when cooked may not offend our teeth. 
These lessons of Horace are accounted among his Satires. 
But what of that ? That which was satire to Augustine 



46 



JAMAICA. 



Eome shall be simple homely teaching to the subject of 
Victoria with his thousand a year. 

But the cook in the Jamaica country house is a person 
of importance, and I am inclined to think that the lady 
whom I have accused of idleness does during those vacant 
interlunar hours occasionally peer into her kitchen. The 
results at any rate are good — sufficiently so to break the 
hearts of some of our miserable eight-hundred-a-year men 
at home. 

After dinner no wine is taken — none, at least, beyond 
one glass with the ladies, and, if you choose it, one after 
they are gone. Before dinner, as I should have mentioned 
before, a glass of bitters is as much de rigueur as the black 
coat. I know how this will disgust many a kindly friend 
in dear good old thickly-prejudiced native England. ' Yes, 
ma'am, bitters ! No ; not gin and bitters, such as the cab- 
men take at the gin-palaces ; not gin and bitters at all, 
unless you specially request it ; but sherry and bitters ; 
and a very pretty habit it is for a warm country.' If you 
don't drink your wine after dinner, why not take it before ? 
I have no doubt that it is the more wholesome habit of 
the two. 

Not that I recommend, even in the warmest climate, a 
second bitter, or a third. There are spots in the West 
Indies where men take third bitters, and long bitters, — in 
which the bitter time begins when the soda water and 
brandy time ends — in which the latter commences when 
the breakfast beer-bottles disappear. There are such places, 
but they must not be named by me in characters plainly 
legible. To kiss and tell is very criminal, as the whole 
world knows. But while on the subject of bitters, I must 
say this : Let no man ever allow himself to take a long 

bitter such as men make at . It is beyond the power 

of man to stop at ona A long bitter duly swizzled is your 
true West Indian syren. 



COUXTEY. 



47 



And then men and women saunter out on the verandah, 
or perhaps, if it be starlight or moonlight, into the garden. 
Oh, what stars they are, those in that western tropical 
world ! How beautiful a woman looks by their light, how 
sweet the air smells, how gloriously legible are the con- 
stellations of the heavens ! And then one sips a cup of 
coffee, and there is a little chat, the lightest of the light, 
and a little music, light enough also, and at nine one re- 
tires to one's light slumbers. It is a pleasant life for a 
short time, though the flavour of the dolce far niente is 
somewhat too prevalent for Saxon energies fresh from 
Europe. 

Such are the ordinary evenings of society ; but there 
are occasions when no complaint can be made of lack of 
energy. The soul of a Jamaica lady revels in a dance. 
Dancing is popular in England — is popular almost every- 
where ; but in Jamaica it is the elixir of life, the Medea's 
caldron, which makes old people young, the cup of 
Circe, which neither man nor woman can withstand. 
Look at that lady who has been content to sit still and 
look beautiful for the last two hours ; let but the sound of 
a polka meet her ears, and she will awake to life as lively, 
to motion as energetic, as that of a Scotch sportsman on 
the 12 th of August. It is singular how the most list- 
less girl, who seems to trail through her long days almost 
without moving her limbs, will continue to waltz and 
polk and rush up and down a gallopade from ten till five ; 
and then think the hours all too short ! 

And it is not the girls only, and the boys — begging 
their pardon — who rave for dancing. Steady matrons 
of five-and-forty are just as anxious, and grave senators, 
whose years are past naming. See that gentleman with 
the bald head and grizzled beard, how sedulously he is 
making up his card ! ' Madam, the fourth polka,' he 
says to the stout lady in the turban and the yellow slip, 



48 



JAMAICA. 



who could not move yesterday because of her rheuma- 
tism. ' I'm full up to the fifth,' she replies, looking at 
the MS. hanging from her side ; 6 but shall be so happy 
for the sixth, or perhaps the second schottische.' And 
then, after a little grave conference, the matter is settled 
between them. 

' I hope you dance quick dances,' a lady said to me. 
6 Quick!' I replied in my ignorance; 'has not one to go 
by the music in Jamaica ?' ' Oh, you goose ! don't you 
know what quick dances are ? I never dance anything 
but quick dances ; quadrilles are so deadly dull.' I could 
not but be amused at this new theory as to the quick and 
the dead — new at least to me, though, alas ! I found myself 
tabooed from all the joys of the night by this invidious 
distinction. 

In the West Indies, polkas and the like are quick dances; 
quadrilles and their counterparts are simply dead. A lady 
shows you no compliment by giving you her hand for the 
latter ; in that you have merely to amuse her by conversa- 
tion. Flirting, as any practitioner knows, is spoilt by much 
talking. Many words make the amusement either absurd 
or serious, and either alternative is to be avoided. 

And thus I soon became used to quick dances and long 
drinks — that is, in my vocabulary. 4 Will you have a long 
drink or a short one ?' It sounds odd, but is very ex- 
pressive. A long drink is taken from a tumbler, a short 
one from a wine-glass. The whole extent of the choice 
thus becomes intelligible. 

Many things are necessary, and many changes must 
be made before Jamaica can again enjoy all her former 
prosperity. I do not know whether the total abolition of 
the growth of sugar be not one of them. But this I do 
know, that whatever be their produce, they must have 
roads on which to carry it before they can grow rich. 



COUXTET. 



49 



The roads through the greater part of the island are very 
bad indeed ; and those along the southern coast, through 
the parishes of St. Elizabeth, Manchester, and Claren- 
don, are by no means among the best. I returned to 
Kingston by this route, and shall never forget some of 
my difficulties. On the whole, the south-western portion 
of the island is by no means equal to the northern. 

I took a third expedition up to Newcastle, where are 
placed the barracks for our white troops, to the Blue 
Mountain Peak, and to various gentlemen's houses in these 
localities. For grandeur of scenery this is the finest part 
of the island. The mountains are far too abrupt, and the 
land too much broken for those lovely park-like landscapes 
of which the parishes of Westmoreland and Hanover are 
full, and of which Shuttlestone, the property of Lord 
Howard de Walden, is perhaps the most beautiful speci- 
men. But nothing can be grander, either in colour or 
grouping, than the ravines of the Blue Mountain ranges 
of hills. Perhaps the finest view in the island is from 
Raymond Lodge, a house high up among the mountains, 
in which — so local rumour says — 6 Tom Cringle's Log J 
was written. 

To reach these regions a man must be an equestrian — - 
as must also a woman. No lady lives there so old but what 
she is to be seen on horseback, nor any child so young. 
Babies are carried up there on pillows, and whole fami- 
lies on ponies. 'Tis here that bishops and generals love 
to dwell, that their daughters may have rosy cheeks, and 
their sons stalwart limbs. And they are right. Children 
that are brought up among these mountains, though they 
live but twelve or eighteen miles from their young friends 
down at Kingston, cannot be taken as belonging to the 
same race. I can imagine no more healthy climate than 
the mountains round Newcastle. 

I shall not soon forget my ride to Newcastle. Two 

E 



JAMAICA. 



ladies accompanied me and my excellent friend who was 
pioneering me through the country ; and they were kind 
enough to show us the way over all the break-neck passes 
in the country. To them and to their horses, these were 
like easy highroads ; but to me, — — ! It was manifestly 
a disappointment to them that my heart did not faint 
visibly within me. 

I have hunted in Carmarthenshire, and a man who has 
clone that ought to be able to ride anywhere : but in riding 
over some of these razorback crags, my heart, though it 
did not faint visibly, did almost do so invisibly. How- 
ever, we got safely to Newcastle, and our fair friends re- 
turned over the same route with no other escort than that 
of a black groom. In spite of the crags the ride was not 
unpleasant. 

One would almost enlist as a full private in one of her 
Majesty's regiments of the line if one were sure of being 
quartered for ever at Newcastle — at Newcastle, Jamaica, 
I mean. Other Newcastles of which I wot have by no 
means equal attraction. This place also is accessible only 
by foot or on horseback ; and is therefore singularly situated 
for a barrack. But yet it consists now of a goodly village, 
in which live colonels, and majors, and chaplains, and 
surgeons, and purveyors, all in a state of bliss — as it were 
in a second Eden. It is a military paradise, in which war 
is spoken of, and dinners and dancing abound. If good 
air and fine scenery be dear to the heart of the British 
soldier, he ought to be happy at Newcastle. Nevertheless, 
I prefer the views from Eaymond Lodge to any that New- 
castle can afford. 

And now I have a mournful story to tell. Did any 
man ever know of any good befalling him from going up 
a mountain ; always excepting Albert Smith, who, we are 
told, has realized half a million by going up Mont Blanc ? 
If a man can go up his mountains in Piccadilly, it may be 



COUNTRY. 



51 



all very well ; in so doing he perhaps may see the sun 
rise, and be able to watch nature in her wildest vagaries. 
But as for the true ascent — the nasty, damp, dirty, slip- 
pery, boot-destroying, shin-breaking, veritable mountain ! 
Let me recommend my friends to let it alone, unless they 
have a gift for making half a million in Piccadilly. I 
have tried many a mountain in a small way, and never 
found one to answer. I hereby protest that I will never 
try another. 

However, I did go up the Blue Mountain Peak, which 
ascends — so I was told — to the respectable height of 8,000 
feet above the sea level. To enable me to do this, I pro- 
vided myself with a companion, and he provided me with 
five negroes, a supply of beef, bread, and water, some 
wine and brandy, and what appeared to me to be about 
ten gallons of rum ; for we were to spend the night on the 
Blue Mountain Peak, in order that the rising sun might 
be rightly worshipped. 

For some considerable distance we rode, till we came 
indeed to the highest inhabited house in the island. This 
is the property of a coffee-planter who lives there, and 
who divides his time and energies between the growth of 
coffee and the entertainment of visitors to the mountain. 
So hospitable an old gentleman, or one so droll in speech, 
or singular in his mode of living, I shall probably never 
meet again. His tales as to the fate of other travellers 
made me tremble for what might some day be told of my 
own adventures. He feeds you gallantly, sends you on 
your way with a Grod- speed, and then hands you down to 
derision with the wickedest mockery. He is the gibing 
spirit of the mountain, and I would at any rate recommend 
no ladies to trust themselves to his courtesies. 

Here we entered and called for the best of everything — 
beer, brandy, v coffee, ringtailed doves, salt fish, fat fowls, 
. English potatoes, hot pickles, and Worcester sauce. 

E 2 



52 



JAMAICA. 



' What, C , no Worcester sauce ! Gammon ; make 

the fellow go and look for it.' Tis thus hospitality is 
claimed in Jamaica ; and in process of time the Worcester 
sauce was forthcoming. It must be remembered that 
every article of food has to be carried up to this place on 
mules' backs, over the tops of mountains for twenty or 
thirty miles. 

When we had breakfasted and drunk and smoked, and 
promised our host that he should have the pleasure of 
feeding us again on the morrow, we proceeded on our 
way. The five negroes each had loads on their heads and 
cutlasses in their hands. We ourselves travelled without 
other burdens than our own big sticks. 

I have nothing remarkable to tell of the ascent. We 
soon got into a cloud, and never got out of it. But that 
is a matter of course. We were soon wet through up to 
our middles, but that is a matter of course also. We 
came to various dreadful passages, which broke our toes 
and our nails and our hats, the worst of which was called 
Jacob's ladder — also a matter of course. Every now and 
then we regaled the negroes with rum, and the more rum 
we gave them the more they wanted. And every now 
and then we regaled ourselves with brandy and water, and 
the oftener we regaled ourselves the more we required to 
be regaled. All which things are matters of course. And 
so we arrived at the Blue Mountain Peak. 

Our first two objects were to construct a hut and collect 
wood for firing. As for any enjoyment from the position, 
that, for that evening, was quite out of the question. We 
were wet through and through, and could hardly see 
twenty yards before us on any side. So we set the men 
to work to produce such mitigation of our evil position as 
was possible. 

We did build a hut, and we did make a fire ; and we 
did administer more rum to the negroes, without which 



COUXTEY. 53 

they refused t© work at all. When a black man knows 
that you want him he is apt to become very impudent, 
especially when backed by rum ; and at such times they 
altogether forget, or at any rate disregard, the punishment 
that may follow in the shape of curtailed gratuities. 

Slowly and mournfully we dried ourselves at the fire ; 
or rather did not dry ourselves, but scorched our clothes 
and burnt our boots in a vain endeavour to do so. It is 
a singular fact, but one which experience has fully taught 
me, that when a man is thoroughly wet he may burn his 
trousers off his legs and his shoes off his feet, and yet they 
will not be dry — nor will he. Mournfully we turned our- 
selves before the fire — slowly, like badly-roasted joints of 
meat ; and the result was exactly that : we were badly 
roasted — roasted and raw at the same time. 

And then we crept into our hut, and made one of these 
wretched repasts in which the collops of food slip down 
and get sat upon ; in which the salt is blown away and 
the bread saturated in beer; in which one gnaws one's 
food as Adam probably did, but as men need not do now, 
far removed as they are from Adam's discomforts. A man 
may cheerfully go without his dinner and feed like a beast 
when he gains anything by it ; but when he gains nothing, 
and has his boots scorched off his feet into the bargain, it 
is hard then for him to be cheerful. I was bound to be 
jolly, as my companion had come there merely for my sake ; 
but how it came to pass that he did not become sulky, 
that was the miracle. As it was, I knew full well that 
he wished me — safe in England. 

Having looked to our fire and smoked a sad cigar, we 
put ourselves to bed in our hut. The operation consisted in 
huddling on all the clothes we had. But even with this the 
cold prevented us from sleeping. The chill damp air pene- 
trated through two shirts, two coats, two pairs of trousers. 
It was impossible to believe that we were in the tropics. 

I 



54 JAMAICA— COUNTBY. 

And then the men got drunk and refused to cut more 
firewood, and disputes began which lasted all night ; and 
all was cold, damp, comfortless, wretched, and endless. 
And so the morning came. 

That it was morning our watches told us, and also a 
dull dawning of muddy light through the constant mist ; 

but as for sunrise ! The sun may rise for those who 

get up decently from their beds in the plains below, but 
there is no sunrising on Helvellyn, or Eighi, or the Blue 
Mountain Peak. Nothing rises there ; but mists and 
clouds are for ever falling. 

And then we packed up our wretched traps, and again 
descended. While coming up some quips and cranks had 
passed between us and our sable followers ; but now all 
was silent as grim death. We were thinking of our sore 
hands and bruised feet ; were mindful of the dirt which 
clogged us, and the damp which enveloped us ; were 
mindful also a little of our spoilt raiment, and ill-requited 
labours, Our wit did not flow freely as we descended. 

A second breakfast with the man of the mountain, and 
a glorious bath in a huge tank somewhat restored us, and 
as we regained our horses the miseries of our expedition 
were over. My friend fervently and loudly declared that 
no spirit of hospitality, no courtesy to a stranger, no 
human eloquence should again tempt him to ascend the 
Blue Mountains ; and I cordially advised him to keep his 
resolution. I made no vows aloud, but I may here pro- 
test that any such vows were unnecessary. 

I afterwards visited another seat, Flamstead, which, as 
regards scenery, has rival claims to those of Eaymond 
Lodge. The views from Flamstead were certainly very 
beautiful ; but on the whole I preferred my first love. 



CHAPTER IV. 



JAMAICA — BLACK MEN". 

To an Englishman who lias never lived in a slave country, 
or in a country in which slavery once prevailed, the negro 
population is of course the most striking feature of the West 
Indies. But the eye soon becomes accustomed to the 
black skin and the thick lip, and the ear to the broken 
patois which is the nearest approach to English which the 
ordinary negro ever makes. When one has been a week 
among them, the novelt) 7 is all gone. It is only by an 
exercise of memory and intellect that one is enabled to 
think of them as a strange race. 

But how strange is the race of Creole negroes — of 
negroes, that is, born out of Africa ! They have no 
country of their own, yet have they not hitherto any 
country of their adoption; for, whether as slaves in Cuba, 
or as free labourers in the British isles, they are in each 
case a servile people in a foreign land. They have no 
language of their own, nor have they as yet any language 
of their adoption ; for they speak their broken English as 
uneducated foreigners always speak a foreign language. 
They have no idea of country, and no pride of race ; for 
even among themselves, the word 6 nigger ' conveys their 
worst term of reproach. They have no religion of their 
own, and can hardly as yet be said to have, as a people, 
a religion by adoption; and yet there is no race which 



56 



JAMAICA. 



has more strongly developed its own physical aptitudes 
and inaptitudes, its own habits, its own tastes, and its own 
faults. 

The West Indian negro knows nothing of Africa ex- 
cept that it is a term of reproach. If African immigrants 
are put to work on the same estate with him, he will not 
eat with them, or drink with them, or walk with them. 
He will hardly work beside them, and regards himself as 
a creature immeasurably the superior of the new comer. 
But yet he has made no approach to the civilization of 
his white fellow-creature, whom he imitates as a monkey 
does a man. 

Physically he is capable of the hardest bodily work, 
and that probably with less bodily pain than men of any 
other race ; but he is idle, unambitious as to worldly 
position, sensual, and content with little. Intellectually, 
he is apparently capable of but little sustained effort ; but, 
singularly enough, here he is ambitious. He burns to be 
regarded as a scholar, puzzles himself with fine words, 
addicts himself to religion for the sake of appearance, 
and delights in aping the little graces of civilization. He 
despises himself thoroughly, and would probably be con- 
tent to starve for a month if he could appear as a white 
man for a day ; but yet he delights in signs of respect 
paid to him, black man as he is, and is always thinking 
of his own dignity. If you want to win his heart for an 
hour, call him a gentleman ; but if you want to reduce 
him to a despairing obedience, tell him that he is a 
filthy nigger, assure him that his father and mother had 
tails like monkeys, and forbid him to think that he can 
have a soul like a white man. Among the West Indies 
one may frequently see either course adopted towards 
tli em by their unreasoning ascendant masters. 

I do not think that education has as yet done much 
for the black man in the Western world. He can always 



BLACK MEN. 



57 



observe, and often read ; but he can seldom reason. I 
do not mean to assert that lie Is absolutely without mental 
power, as a calf is. He does draw conclusions, but lie 
carries them only a short way. I think that he seldom 
understands the purpose of industry, the object of truth, 
or the results of honesty. He is not always idle, perhaps 
not always false, certainly not always a thief ; but his 
motives are the fear of immediate punishment, or hopes of 
immediate reward. He fears that and hopes that only. 
Certain virtues he copies, because they are the virtues of 
a white man. The white man is the god present to his 
eye, and he believes in him — believes in him with a 
qualified faith, and imitates him with a qualified con- 
stancy. 

And thus I am led to say, and I say it with sorrow 
enough, that I distrust the negro's religion. What I 
mean is this : that in my opinion they rarely take in 
and digest the great and simple doctrines of Christianity, 
that they should love and fear the Lord their God, and 
love their neighbours as themselves. 

Those who differ from me — and the number will 
comprise the whole clergy of these western realms, and 
very many beside the clergy — will ask, among other 
questions, whether these simple doctrines are obeyed in 
England much better than they are in Jamaica. I 
would reply that I am not speaking of obedience. The 
opinion which I venture to give is, that the very first 
meaning of the terms does not often reach the negro's 
mind, not even the minds of those among them who are 
enthusiastically religious. To them religious exercises 
are in themselves the good thing desirable. They sing 
their psalms, and believe, probably, that good will result; 
but they do not connect their psalms with the practice of 
any virtue. They say their prayers ; but, having said 
them, have no idea that they should therefore forgive 



58 



JAMAICA. 



offences. Thev hear the commandments and delight in 
the responses ; but those commandments are not in their 
hearts connected with abstinence from adultery or calumny. 
They delight to go to church or meeting ; they are ener- 
getic in singing psalms ; they are constant in the responses ; 
and, which is saying much more for them, they are 
wonderfully expert at Scripture texts ; but — and I say it 
with grief of heart, and with much trembling also at the 
reproaches which I shall have to endure — I doubt whether 
religion does often reach their minds. 

As I greatly fear being misunderstood on this subject, 
I must explain that I by no means think that religious 
teaching has been inoperative fbr good among the negroes. 
Were I to express such an opinion I should be putting 
them on the same footing with the slaves in Cuba, who 
are left wholly without such teaching, and who, in conse- 
quence, are much nearer the brute creation than their 
more fortunate brethren. To have learnt the precepts 
of Christianity — even though they be not learnt faith- 
fully — softens the heart and expels its ferocity. That 
theft is esteemed a sin ; that men and women should live 
together under certain laws ; that blood should not be shed 
in anger ; that an oath should be true ; that there is one 
God the Father who made us, and one Redeemer who 
would willingly save us — these doctrines the negro in a 
general way has learnt, and in them he has a sort of belief. 
He has so far progressed that by them he judges of the 
conduct of others. AYhat he lacks is a connecting link 
between these doctrines and himself — an appreciation 
of the fact that these doctrines are intended for his own 
guidance. 

But, though he himself wants the link, circumstances 
have in some measure produced it. As he judges others, 
so he fears the judgment of others; and in this manner 
Christianity has prevailed with him. 



BLACK MEX. 



59 



In many respects the negro's phase of humanity differs 
much from that which is common to us, and which has 
been produced by our admixture of blood and our present 
extent of civilization. They are more passionate than 
the white men, but rarely vindictive, as we are. The 
smallest injury excites their eager wrath, but no injury 
produces sustained hatred. In the same way, they are 
seldom grateful, though often very thankful. They are 
covetous of notice as is a child or a dog : but they have 
little idea of earning continual respect. They best love 
him who is most unlike themselves, and they despise the 
coloured man who approaches them in breed. "When 
they have once recognized a man as their master, they 
will be faithful to him ; but the more they fear that 
master, the more they will respect him. They have no 
care for to-morrow, but they delight in being gaudy for 
to-day. Their crimes are those of momentary impulse, 
as are also their virtues. They fear death ; but if they 
can lie in the sun without pain for the hour they will 
hardly drag themselves to the hospital, though their 
disease be mortal. They love their offspring, but in 
their rage will ill use them fearfully. They are proud of 
them when they are praised, but will sell their daughter's 
virtue for a dollar. They are greedy of food, but gene- 
rally indifferent as to its quality. They rejoice in finery, 
and have in many cases begun to understand the benefit 
of comparative cleanliness ; but they are rarely tidy. A 
little makes them happy, and nothing makes them perma- 
nently wretched. On the whole, they laugh and sing and 
sleep through life ; and if life were all, they would not 
have so bad a time of it. 

These, I think, are the qualities of the negro. Manv 
of them are in their way good ; but are they not such as 
we have generally seen in the lower spheres of life ? 

Much of this is strongly opposed to the idea of the 



60 



JAMAICA. 



Creole negro which has lately become prevalent in 
England. He has been praised for his piety, and espe- 
cially praised for his consistent gratitude to his benefactors 
and faithful adherence to his master's interests. 

On such subjects our greatest difficulty is perhaps that 
of avoiding an opinion formed by exceptional cases. That 
there are and have been pious negroes I do not doubt. 
That many are strongly tinctured with the language and 
outward bearing of piety I am well aware. I know that 
they love the Bible — love it as the Eoman Catholic girl 
loves the doll of a Madonna which she dresses with muslin 
and ribbons. In a certain sense this is piety, and such 
piety they often possess. 

And I do not deny their family attachments ; but it 
is the attachment of a dog. We have all had dogs whom 
we have well used, and have prided ourselves on their 
fidelity. We have seen them to be wretched when they 
lose us for a moment, and have smiled at their joy when 
they again discover us. We have noted their patience as 
they wait for food from the hand they know will feed 
them. We have seen with delight how their love for us 
glistens in their eyes. We trust them with our children 
as the safest playmates, and teach them in mocking sport 
the tricks of humanity. In return for this the dear brutes 
give us all their hearts, but it is not given in gratitude ; 
and they abstain with all their power from injury and 
offence, but they do not abstain from judgment. Let his 
master ill use his dog ever so cruelly, yet the animal has 
no anger against him when the pain is over. Let a 
stranger save him from such ill usage, and he has no 
thankfulness after the moment. Affection and fidelity 
are things of custom with him. 

I know how deep will be the indignation I shall draw 
upon my head by this picture of a fellow-creature and a 
fellow-Christian. Man's philanthropy would wish to look 



BLACK MEN. 



Ci 



on all men as walking in a quick patli towards the per- 
fection of civilization. And men are not happy in their 
good efforts unless they themselves can see their effects. 
They are not content to fight for the well-being of a 
race, and to think that the victory shall not come till 
the victors shall for centuries have been mingled with 
the dust. The friend of the negro, when he puts his 
shoulder to the wheel, and tries to rescue his black 
brother from the degradation of an inferior species, hopes 
to see his client rise up at once with all the glories of 
civilization round his head. 4 There ; behold my work ; 
how good it is !' That is the reward to which he looks. 
But what if the work be not as yet good ? What if it 
be God's pleasure that more time be required before 
the work be good — good in our finite sense of the word — 
in our sense, which requires the show of an immediate 
effect ? 

After all, what we should desire first, and chiefly — 
is it not the truth ? It will avail nothing to humanity to 
call a man a civilized Christian if the name be not 
deserved. Philanthropy will gain little but self-flattery 
and gratification of its vanity by applying to those whom 
it would serve a euphemistic but false nomenclature. 
God, for his own purposes — purposes which are already 
becoming more and more intelligible to his creatures — has 
created men of inferior and superior race. Individually, 
the state of an Esquimaux is grievous to an educated 
mind : but the educated man, taking the world collec- 
tively, knows that it is good that the Esquimaux should 
be, should have been made such as he is ; knows also, 
that that state admits of improvement ; but should know 
also that such cannot be done by the stroke of a wand — 
by a speech in Exeter Hall — by the mere sounds of 
Gospel truth, beautiful as those sounds are. 

We are always in such a hurry ; although, as regards 



62 



JAMAICA. 



the progress of races, history so plainly tells us how vain 
such hurry is ! At thirty, a man devotes himself to pro- 
selytizing a people ; and if the people be not proselytized 
when he has reached forty, he retires in disgust. In 
early life we have aspirations for the freedom of an ill- 
used nation ; but in middle life we abandon our protege 
to tyranny and the infernal gods. The process has been 
too long. The nation should have risen free, at once, 
upon the instant. It is hard for man to work without 
hope of seeing that for which he labours. 

But to return to our sable friends. The first desire 
of a man in a state of civilization is for property. Greed 
and covetousness are no doubt vices; but they are the 
vices which have grown from cognate virtues. Without 
a desire for property, man could make no progress. But 
the negro has no such desire ; no desire strong enough 
to induce him to labour for that which he wants. In 
order that he may eat to-day and be clothed to-morrow, 
he will work a little ; as for anything beyond that, he 
is content to lie in the sun. 

Emancipation and the last change in the sugar duties 
have made land only too plentiful in Jamaica, and enor- 
mous tracts have been thrown out of cultivation as un- 
profitable. And it is also only too fertile. The negro, 
consequently, has had unbounded facility of squatting, 
and has availed himself of it freely. To recede from 
civilization and become again savage — as savage as the 
laws of the community will permit — has been to his taste. 
I believe that he would altogether retrograde if left to 
himself. 

I shall now be asked, having said so much, whether 
I think that emancipation was wrong. By no means. I 
think that emancipation was clearly right ; but I think 
that we expected far too great and far too quick a result 
from emancipation. 



BLACK MEX. 



63 



These people are a servile race, fitted by nature for the 
hardest physical work, and apparently at present fitted 
for little else. Some thirty years since they were in a 
state when such work was their lot ; but their tasks were 
exacted from them in a condition of bondage abhorrent to 
the feelings of the age, and opposed to the religion 
which we practised. For us, thinking as we did, slavery 
was a sin. From that sin we have cleansed ourselves. 
But the mere fact of doing so has not freed us from our 
difficulties. Nor was it to be expected that it should. 
The discontinuance of a sin is always the commencement 
of a struggle. 

Few, probably, will think that Providence has permitted 
so great an exodus as that which has taken place from 
Africa to the West without having wise results in view. 
We may fairly believe that it has been a part of the 
Creator's scheme for the population and cultivation of the 
earth; a part of that scheme which sent Asiatic hordes 
into Europe, and formed, by the admixture of nations, 
that race to which it is our pride to belong. But that 
admixture of blood has taken tens of centuries. Why 
should w^e think that Providence should work more 
rapidly now in these latter ages ? 

No Englishman, no Anglo-Saxon, could be what he 
now is but for that portion of wild and savage energy 
which has come to him from his Vandal forefathers. 
May it not then be fair to suppose that a time shall come 
when a race will inhabit those lovely islands, fitted by 
nature for their burning sun, in wdiose blood shall be 
mixed some portion of northern energy, and which shall 
owe its physical powers to African progenitors, — a race 
that shall be no more ashamed of the name of negro 
than we are of the name of Saxon ? 

But, in the mean time, what are we to do with our 
friend, lying as he now is at his ease under the cotton- 



64 



JAMAICA. 



tree, and declining to work after ten o'clock in the morn- 
ing ? 6 No, tankee, massa, me tired now ; me no want 
more money.' Or perhaps it is, ' No ; workee no more ; 
money no 'miff ; workee no pay.' These are the answers 
which the suppliant planter receives when at ten o'clock 
he begs his negro neighbours to go a second time into the 
cane-fields and earn a second shilling, or implores them 
to work for him more than four days a week, or solicits 
them at Christmas-time to put up with a short ten days' 
holiday. His canes are ripe, and his mill should be 
about ; or else they are foul with weeds, and the hogs- 
heads will be very short if they be not cleansed. He 
is anxious enough, for all his world depends upon it. 
But what does the negro care ? 'No; me no more 
workee now.' 

The busher (overseer : elide the o and change v into b, 
and the w T ord will gradually explain itself) — The busher, 
who remembers slavery and former happy days, d — s 
him for a lazy nigger, and threatens him with coming 
starvation, and perhaps with returning monkeydom. ' No, 
massa ; no starve now ; God send plenty yam. No more 
monkey now, massa.' The black man is not in the least 
angry, though the busher is. And as for the canes, 
they remain covered with dirt, and the return of the 
estate is but one hundred and thirty hogsheads instead of 
one hundred and ninety. Let the English farmer think 
of that ; and in realizing the full story, he must imagine 
that the plenteous food alluded to has been grown on his 
own ground, and probably planted at his own expense. 
The busher was wrong to curse the man, and wrong to 
threaten him with the monkey's tail ; but it must be 
admitted that the position is trying to the temper. 

And who can blame the black man? He is free to 
work, or free to let it alone. He can live without work 
and roll in the sun, and suck oranges and eat bread-fruit ; 



BLACK MEN. 



05 



ay, and ride a horse perhaps, and wear a white waistcoat 
and plaited shirt on Sundays. Why should he care for 
the busher ? I will not dig cane-holes for half a crown 
a day ; and why should I expect him to do so ? I can 
live without it ; so can he. 

But, nevertheless, it would be very well if we could 
so contrive that he should not live without work. It is 
clearly not Nature's intention that he should be exempted 
from the general lot of Adam's children. We would not 
have our friend a slave ; but we would fain force him 
to give the world a fair day's work for his fair day's pro- 
vender, if we knew how to do so without making him a 
slave. The fact I take it is, that there are too many 
good things in Jamaica for the number who have to enjoy 
them. If the competitors were more in number, more 
trouble would be necessary in their acquirement. 

And now, just at this moment, philanthropy is again 
busy in England protecting the Jamaica negro. He is 
a man and a brother, and shall we not regard him ? 
Certainly, my philanthropic friend, let us regard him well. 
He is a man ; and, if you will, a brother ; but he is the 
very idlest brother with which a hardworking workman 
was ever cursed, intent only on getting his mess of pottage 
without giving anything in return. His petitions about 
the labour market, my excellently-soft-hearted friend, 
and his desire to be protected from undue competition 
are— — Oh, my friend, I cannot tell you how utterly 
they are — gammon. He is now eating his yam without 
work, and in that privilege he is anxious to be main- 
tained. And you, are you willing to assist him in his 
views ? 

The negro slave was ill treated — ill treated, at any rate, 
in that he was a slave ; and therefore, by that reaction 
which prevails in all human matters, it is now thought 
necessary to wrap him up in cotton and put him under 

F 



GG 



JAMAICA. 



a glass case. The wind must not blow on him too 
roughly, and the rose-leaves on which he sleeps should 
not be ruffled. He has been a slave ; therefore now let 
him be a Sybarite. His father did an ample share of 
work ; therefore let the son be made free from his portion 
in the primeval curse. The friends of the negro, if they 
do not actually use such arguments, endeavour to carry 
out such a theory. 

But one feels that the joke has almost been carried 
too far when one is told that it is necessary to protect 
the labour market in Jamaica, and save the negro from 
the dangers of competition. No immigration of labourers 
into that happy country should be allowed, lest the rate 
of wages be lowered, and the unfortunate labourer be 
made more dependent on his master ! But if the unfor- 
tunate labourers could be made to work, say four days a 
week, and on an average eight hours a day, would not 
that in itself be an advantage ? In our happy England, 
men are not slaves; but the competition of the labour 
market forces upon them long days of continual labour. 
In our own country, ten hours of toil, repeated six days 
a week, for the majority of us will barely produce the 
necessaries of life. It is quite right that we should love 
the negroes ; but I cannot understand that we ought to 
love them better than ourselves. 

But with the most sensible of those who are now en- 
deavouring to prevent immigration into Jamaica the 
argument has been, not the protection of the Jamaica 
negro, but the probability of ill usage to the immigrating 
African. In the first place, it is impossible not to ob- 
serve the absurdity of acting on petitions from the negroes 
of Jamaica on such a pretence as this. Does any one truly 
imagine that the black men in Jamaica are so anxious 
for the welfare of their cousins in Africa, that they feel 
themselves bound to come forward and express their 



BLACK MEN. 



67 



anxiety to the English Houses of Parliament ? Of course 
nobody believes it. Of course it is perfectly understood 
that those petitions are got up by far other persons, and 
with by far other views ; and that not one negro in fifty 
of those who sign them understands anything whatever 
about the matter, or has any wish or any solicitude on 
such a subject. 

Lord Brougham mentions it as a matter of congratula- 
tion, that so large a proportion of the signatures should be 
written by the subscribers themselves — that there should 
be so few marksmen ; but is it a matter of congratulation 
that this power of signing their names should be used for 
so false a purpose ? 

And then comes the question as to these immigrants 
themselves. Though it is not natural to suppose that 
their future fellow-labourers in Jamaica should be very 
anxious about them, such anxiety on the part of others 
is natural. In the first place, it is for the government 
to look to them ; and then, lest the government should 
neglect its duty it is for such men as Lord Brougham to 
look to the government. That Lord Brougham should 
to the last be anxious for the welfare of the African is 
what all men would expect and all desire ; but we would 
not wish to confide even to him the power of absolutely 
consummating the ruin of the Jamaica planter. Is it the 
fact that labourers immigrating to the West Indies have 
been ill treated, whether they be Portuguese from 
Madeira, Coolies from India, Africans from the Western 
Coast, or Chinese ? In Jamaica, unfortunately, their num- 
ber is as yet but scanty, but in British Guiana they are 
numerous. I think I may venture to say that no labourers 
in any country are so cared for, so closely protected, so 
certainly saved from the usual wants and sorrows inci- 
dent to the labouring classes. And this is equally so in 
Jamaica as far as the system has gone. What would 

f2 



65 



JAMAICA, 



be the usage of the African introduced by voluntary con- 
tribution may be seen in the usage of him who has been 
brought into the country from captured slave-ships. 
Their clothing, their food, their house accommodation, 
their hospital treatment, their amount of work and obli- 
gatory period of working with one master — all these 
matters are under government surveillance; and the 
planter who has allotted to him the privilege of employ- 
ing such labour becomes almost as much subject to govern- 
ment inspection as though his estate were government 
property. 

It is said that an obligatory period of labour amounts 
to slavery, even though the contract shall have been en- 
tered into by the labourer of his own free will. I will 
not take on myself to deny this, as I might find it diffi- 
cult to define the term slavery ; but if this be so, English 
apprentices are slaves, and so are indentured clerks ; so 
are hired agricultural servants in many parts of England 
and Wales ; and so, certainly, are all our soldiers and sailors. 

But in the ordinary acceptation of the word slavery, 
that acceptation which comes home to us all, whether we 
can define it or no, men subject to such contracts are not 
slaves. 

There is much that is prepossessing in the ordinary 
good humour of the negro; and much also that is pic- 
turesque in his tastes. I soon learned to think the women 
pretty, in spite of their twisted locks of wool ; and to' like 
the ring of their laughter, though it is not exactly silver- 
sounding. They are very rarely surly when spoken to ; 
and their replies, though they seldom are absolutely witty, 
contain, either in the sound or in the sense, something 
that amounts to drollery. The unpractised ear has great 
difficulty in understanding them, and I have sometimes 
thought that this indistinctness has created the fun which 



BLACK MEN. 



69 



I have seemed to relish. The tone and look are humorous ; 
and the words, which are hardly heard, and are not under- 
stood, get credit for humour also. 

Nothing about thern is more astonishing than the dress 
of the women. It is impossible to deny to them consider- 
able taste and great power of adaptation. In England, 
among our housemaids and even haymakers, crinoline, 
false flowers, long waists, and flowing sleeves have become 
common; but they do not wear their finery as though 
they were at home in it. There is generally with them, 
when in their Sunday best, something of the hog in ar- 
mour. With the negro woman there is nothing of this. 
In the first place she is never shame-faced. Then she 
has very frequently a good figure, and having it, she 
knows how to make the best of it. She has a natural 
skill in dress, and will be seen with a boddice fitted to her 
as though it had been made and laced in Paris. 

Their costumes on fete days and Sundays are perfectly 
marvellous. They are by no means contented with 
coloured calicoes ; but shine in muslin and light silks at 
heaven only knows how much a yard. They wear their 
dresses of an enormous fulness. One may see of a Sun- 
day evening three ladies occupying a whole street by the 
breadth of their garments, who on the preceding day 
were scrubbing pots and carrying weights about the town 
on their heads. And they will walk in full-dress too as 
though they had been used to go in such attire from their 
youth up. They rejoice most in white — in white muslin 
with coloured sashes ; in light-brown boots, pink gloves, 
parasols, and broad-brimmed straw hats with deep veils 
and glittering bugles. The hat and the veil, however, 
are mistakes. If the negro woman thoroughly understood 
effect, she would wear no head-dress but the coloured 
handkerchief, which is hers by right of national custom. 

Some of their efforts after dignity of costume are inef- 



70 



JAMAICA. 



fably ludicrous. One Sunday evening, far away in the 
country, as I was riding with a gentleman, the proprietor 
of the estate around us, I saw a young girl walking home 
from church. She was arrayed from head to foot in 
virgin white. Her gloves were on, and her parasol was 
up. Her hat also was white, and so was the lace, and so 
were the bugles which adorned it. She walked with a 
stately dignity that was worthy of such a costume, and 
worthy also of higher grandeur ; for behind her walked an 
attendant nymph, carrying the beauty's prayer-book — on 
her head. A negro woman carries every burden on her 
head, from a tub of water weighing a hundredweight down 
to a bottle of physic. 

When we came up to' her, she turned towards us and 
curtsied. She curtsied, for she recognized her 6 massa 
but she curtsied with great dignity, for she recognized 
also her own finery. The girl behind with the prayer- 
book made the ordinary obeisance, crooking her leg up 
at the knee, and then standing upright quicker than 
thought. 

' Who on earth is that princess ?' said I. 

6 They are two sisters who both work at my mill,' 
said my friend. 6 Next Sunday they will change places. 
Polly will have the parasol and the hat, and Jenny will 
carry the prayer-book on her head behind her.' 

I was in a shoemaker's shop at St. Thomas, buying 
a pair of boots, when a negro entered quickly and in a 
loud voice said he wanted a pair of pumps. He was a 
labouring man fresh from his labour. He had on an old 
hat — what in Ireland men would call a caubeen ; he was 
in his shirt-sleeves, and was barefooted. As the only 
shopman was looking for my boots, he was not attended to 
at the moment. 

' Want a pair of pumps — directerly,' he roared out in a 
very dictatorial voice. 



BLACK MEET. 



71 



6 Sit down for a moment,' said the shopman, 6 and I will 
attend to you.' 

He did sit down, but did so in the oddest fashion. He 
dropped himself suddenly into a chair, and at the same 
moment rapidly raised his legs from the ground ; and as 
he did so fastened his hands across them just below his 
knees, so as to keep his feet suspended from his arms. 
This he contrived to do in such a manner that the moment 
his body reached the chair his feet left the ground. I 
looked on in amazement, thinking he was mad. 

' Give I a bit of carpet/ he screamed out ; still holding 
up his feet, but with much difficulty. 

'Yes, yes,' said the shopman, still searching for the 
boots. 

6 Give I a bit of carpet direct erly,' he again exclaimed. 
The seat of the chair was very narrow, and the back was 
straight, and the position was not easy, as my reader will 
ascertain if he attempt it. He was half-choked with anger 
and discomfort. 

The shopman gave him the bit of carpet. Most men and 
women will remember that such bits of carpet are common 
in shoemakers' shops. They are supplied, I believe, in 
order that they who are delicate should not soil their 
stockings on the floor. 

The gentleman in search of the pumps had seen that 
people of dignity were supplied with such luxuries, and 
resolved to have his value for his money ; but as he had 
on neither shoes nor stockings, the little bit of carpet wa3 
hardly necessary for his material comfort. 



( 72 ) 



CHAPTER V. 

JAMAICA— COLOUKED MEN. 

If in speaking of the negroes I have been in danger of 
offending my friends at home, I shall be certain in speak- 
ing of the coloured men to offend my friends in Jamaica. 
On this subject, though I have sympathy with them, I 
have no agreement. They look on themselves as the 
ascendant race. I look upon those of colour as being so, 
or at any rate as about to become so. 

In speaking of my friends in Jamaica it is not unna- 
tural that I should allude to the pure-blooded Europeans, 
or European Creoles — to those in whose veins there is no 
admixture of African blood. 'Similia similibus.' A 
man from choice will live with those who are of his own 
habits and his own way of thinking. But as regards 
Jamaica, I believe that the light of their star is waning, 
that their ascendency is over — in short, that their work, 
if not done, is on the decline. 

Ascendency is a disagreeable word to apply to any 
two different races whose fate it may be to live together 
in the same land. It has been felt to be so in Ireland, 
when used either with reference to the Saxon Protestant 
or Celtic Eoman Catholic ; and it is so with reference to 
those of various shades of colour in Jamaica. But never- 
theless it is the true word. When two rivers come 



JAMAICA — COLOURED MEN. 



73 



together, the waters of which do not mix, the one stream 
will be the stronger — will overpower the other — will 
become ascendant. And so it is with people and nations. 
It may not be pretty-spoken to talk about ascendency ; 
but sometimes pretty speaking will not answer a man's 
purpose. 

It is almost unnecessary to explain that by coloured 
men I mean those who are of a mixed race — of a breed 
mixed, be it in what proportion it may, between the 
white European and the black African. Speaking of 
Jamaica, I might almost say between the Anglo-Saxon 
and the African; for there remains, I take it, but a 
small tinge of Spanish blood. Of the old Indian blood 
there is, I imagine, hardly a vestige. 

Both the white men and the black dislike their coloured 
neighbours. It is useless to deny that as a rule such is 
the case. The white men now, at this very day, dislike 
them more in Jamaica than they do in other parts of the 
West Indies, because they are constantly driven to meet 
them, and are more afraid of them. 

In Jamaica one does come in contact with coloured 
men. They are to be met at the Governor's table ; they 
sit in the House of Assembly ; they cannot be refused 
admittance to state parties, or even to large assemblies ; 
they have forced themselves forward, and must be recog- 
nized as being in the van. Individuals decry them — will 
not have them within their doors — affect to despise them. 
But in effect the coloured men of Jamaica cannot be 
despised much longer. 

It will be said that we have been wrong if we have 
ever despised these coloured people, or indeed, if we have 
ever despised the negroes, or any other race. I can 
hardly think that anything so natural can be very wrong. 
Those who are educated and civilized and powerful will 
always, in one sense, despise those who are not ; and the 



74 



JAMAICA. 



most educated and civilized and most powerful will 
despise those who are less so. Euphuists may proclaim 
against such a doctrine ; but experience, I think, teaches 
us that it is true. If the coloured people in the West 
Indies can overtop contempt, it is because they are ac- 
quiring education, civilization, and power. In Jamaica 
they are, I hope, in a way to do this. 

My theory — for I acknowledge to a theory — is this: 
that Providence has sent white men and black men to 
these regions in order that from them may- spring a race 
fitted by intellect for civilization; and fitted also by 
physical organization for tropical labour. The negro in 
his primitive state is not, I think, fitted for the former ; 
and the European white Creole is certainly not fitted for 
the latter. 

To all such rules there are of course exceptions. In 
Porto Eico, for instance, one of the two remaining Spanish 
colonies in the West Indies, the Peons, or free peasant 
labourers, are of mixed Spanish and Indian blood, without, 
I believe, any negro element. And there are occasional 
negroes whose mental condition would certainly tend to 
disprove the former of the two foregoing propositions, were 
it not that in such matters exceptional cases prove and 
disprove nothing. Englishmen as a rule are stouter than 
Frenchmen. Were a French FalstafT and an English 
Slender brought into a room together, the above position 
would be not a whit disproved. 

It is probable also that the future race who shall 
inhabit these islands may have other elements than the 
two already named. There will soon be here — in the 
teeth of our friends of the Anti- Slavery Society — thou- 
sands from China and Hindostan. The Chinese and the 
Coolies — immigrants from India are always called Coolies 
— greatly excel the negro in intelligence, and partake, 
though in a limited degree, of the negro's physical abilities 



COLOUEED MEN. 



75 



in a hot climate. And thus the blood of Asia will be 
mixed with that of Africa ; and the necessary compound 
will, by God's infinite wisdom and power, be formed for 
these latitudes, as it has been formed for the colder 
regions in. which the Anglo-Saxon preserves his energy, 
and works. 

I know it will be said that there have been no signs of 
a mixture of breed between the negro and the Coolie, and 
the negro and the Chinese. The instances hitherto are, 
I am aware, but rare ; but then the immigration of these 
classes is a§ yet but recent ; and custom is necessary, and 
a language commonly understood, and habits, which the 
similitude of position will also make common, before such 
races will amalgamate. That they will amalgamate if 
brought together, all history teaches us. The Anglo- 
Saxon and the negro have done so, and in two hundred 
years have produced a population which is said to amount 
to a fifth of that of the whole island of Jamaica, and 
which probably amounts to much more. Two hundred 
years with us is a long time; but it is not so in the 
world's history. From 1660 to 1860 a.d. is a vast lapse 
of years ; but how little is the lapse from the year 1660 
to the year 1860, dating from the creation of the world; 
or rather, how small appears such lapse to us ! In how 
many pages is its history written? and yet (rod's races 
were spreading themselves over the earth then as now. 

Men are in such a hurry. They can hardly believe 
that that w 7 ill come to pass of which they have evidence 
that it will not come to pass in their own days. 

But then comes the question, whether the mulatto is 
more capable of being educated than the negro, and more 
able to work under a hot sun than the Englishman ; 
whether he does not rather lose the physical power of the 
one, and the intellectual power of the other. There are 
those in Jamaica who have known them long, and who 



76 



JAMAICA. 



think that as a race they have deteriorated both in mind 
and body. I am not prepared to deny this. They pro- 
bably have deteriorated in mind and body; and never- 
theless my theory may be right. Nay, I will go further 
and say that such deterioration on both sides is necessary 
to the correctness of my theory. 

In what compound are we to look for the full strength 
of each component part ? Should punch be as strong as 
brandy, or as sweet as sugar ? Neither the one nor the 
other. But in order to be good and efficient punch, it 
should partake duly of the strength of the spirit and of 
the sweetness of the saccharine — according to the skill 
and will of the gnostic fabricator, who in mixing knows 
his own purposes. So has it ever been also in the admix- 
ture of races. The same amount of physical power is not 
required for all climates, nor the same amount of mental 
energy. 

But the mulatto, though he has deteriorated from the 
black man in one respect, and from the white in another, 
does also excel the black man in one respect, and also 
excel the white in another. As a rule, he cannot work 
as a negro can. He could not probably endure to labour 
in the cane-fields for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, 
as is done by the Cuban slave ; but he can work safely 
under a tropical sun, and can in the day go through a 
fair day's work. He is not liable to yellow fever, as is 
the white man, and enjoys as valid a protection from the 
effects of heat as the heat of these regions requires. 

Nor, as far as we yet know, have Galileos, Shaksperes, 
or Napoleons been produced among the mulattos. Few 
may probably have been produced who are able even to 
form an accurate judgment as to the genius of such men 
as these. But that the mulatto race partakes largely of 
the intelligence and ambition of their white forefathers, it 
is I think useless, and moreover wicked, to deny ; wicked, 



COLOURED MEN. 



77 



because the denial arises from an unjust desire to close 
against them the door of promotion. 

Let any stranger go through the shops and stores of 
Kingston, and see how many of them are either owned or 
worked by men of colour ; let him go into the House of 
Assembly, and see how large a proportion of their debates 
is carried on by men of colour. I don't think much of 
the parliamentary excellence of these debates, as I shall 
have to explain by-and-by ; but the coloured men at any 
rate hold their own against their white colleagues. How 
large a portion of the public service is carried on by them ; 
how well they thrive, though the prejudices of both white 
and black are so strong against them ! 

I just now spoke of these coloured men as mulattos. 
I did so because I was then anxious to refer to the exact 
and equal division of black and white blood. Of course 
it is understood that the mulatto, technically so called, is 
the child of parents one of whom is all white and the other 
all black; and to judge exactly of the mixed race, one 
should judge, probably, from such an equal division. 
But no such distinction can be effectually maintained in 
speaking, or even in thinking of these people. The 
various gradations of coloured blood range from all but 
perfect white to all but perfect black ; and the dispositions 
and capabilities are equally various. In the lower orders, 
among those who are nearest to the African stock, no 
attempts I imagine are made to preserve an exact line. 
One is at first inclined to think that the slightest infusion 
of white blood may be traced in the complexion and hair, 
and heard in the voice ; but when the matter is closely 
regarded one often finds it difficult to express an opinion 
even to oneself. Colour is frequently not the safest 
guide. To an inquirer really endeavouring to separate 
the races — should so thankless a task ever be attempted— 
the speech, I think, and the intelligence would afford the 



78 



JAMAICA. 



sources of information on which most reliance could be 
placed. 

But the distinction between the white and the coloured 
men is much more closely regarded. And those are 
the unfortunate among the latter who are tempted, by the 
closeness of their relationship to Europe, to deny their 
African parentage. Many do, if not by lip, at any rate by 
deed, stoutly make such denial ; not by lip, for the sub- 
ject is much too sore for speech, but by every wile by 
which a white quadroon can seek to deny his ancestry ! 
Such denial is never allowed. The crisp hair, the sallow 
skin, the known family history, the thick lip of the old 
remembered granddam, a certain languor in the eye ; all 
or some, or perhaps but one of these tells the tale. But 
the tale is told, and the life-struggle is made always, and 
always in vain. 

This evil — for it is an evil — arises mainly from the 
white man's jealousy. He who seeks to pass for other 
than he is makes a low attempt; all attempts at false- 
hood must of necessity be low. But I doubt whether 
such energy of repudiation be not equally low. Why 
not allow the claim ; or seem to allow it, if practicable ? 
6 White art thou, my friend ? Be a white man if thou 
wilt, or rather if thou canst. All we require of thee is 
that there remains no negro ignorance, no negro cunning, 
no negro apathy of brain. Forbear those vain attempts 
to wash out that hair of thine, and make it lank and 
damp. We will not regard at all, that little wave in thy 
locks.; not even that lisp in thy tongue. But struggle, 
my friend, to be open in thy speech. Any wave there 
we cannot but regard. Speak out the thought that is 
in thee ; for if thy thoughts lisp negrowards, our verdict 
must be against thee.' Is it not thus that we should 
accept their little efforts ? 

But we do not accept . them so. In lieu thereof, we 



COLOUEED MEN. 



79 



admit no claim that can by any evidence be rejected ; 
and, worse than that, we impute the stigma of black blood 
where there is no evidence to support such imputation. 
1 A nice fellow, Jones ; eh ? very intelligent, and well 
mannered,' some stranger says, who knows nothing of 
Jones's antecedents. 6 Yes, indeed,' answers Smith, of 
Jamaica. ; 6 & very decent sort of fellow. They do say 
that he's coloured ; of course you know that.' The next 
time you see Jones, you observe him closely, and can 
find no trace of the Ethiop. But should he presently 
descant on purity of blood, and the insupportable impu- 
dence of the coloured people, them and not till then, you 
would begin to doubt. 

But these are evils which beset merely the point of 
juncture between the two races. With nine-tenths of 
those of mixed breed no attempts at concealment are 
by any means possible ; and by them, of course, no such 
attempts are made. They take their lot as it is, and I 
think that on the whole they make the most of it. 
They of course are jealous of the assumed ascendency 
of the white man, and affect to show, sometimes not in 
the most efficacious manner, that they are his equal in 
external graces as in internal capacities. They are im- 
perious to the black men, and determined on that side 
to exhibit and use their superiority. At this we can 
hardly be surprised. If we cannot set them a better 
lesson than we do, we can hardly expect the benefit 
which should arise from better teaching. 

But the great point to be settled is this : whether this 
race of mulattos, quadroons, mustees, and what not, are 
capable of managing matters for themselves ; of under- 
taking the higher walks of life : of living, in short, as an 
independent people with a proper share of masterdom ; 
and not necessarily as a servile people, as hewers of 
wood and drawers of water? If not. it will fare badly 



tiO 



JAMAICA. 



for Jamaica, and will probably also fare badly in coming 
years for the rest of the West Indies. Whether other 
immigration be allowed or no, of one kind of immigra- 
tion the supply into Jamaica is becoming less and less. 
Few European white men now turn thither in quest of 
fortune. Few Anglo-Saxon adventurers now seek her 
shores as the future home of their adoption. The white 
man has been there, and has left his mark. The Creole 
children of these Europeans of course remain, but their 
numbers are no longer increased by new comers. 

But I think there is no doubt that they are fit — 
these coloured people, to undertake the higher as well 
as lower paths of human labour. Indeed, they do under- 
take them, and thrive well in them now, much to the 
disgust of the so-esteemed ascendant class. They do 
make money, and enjoy it. They practise as statesmen, 
as lawyers, and as doctors in the colony; and, though 
they have not as yet shone brightly as divines in our 
English Church, such deficiency may be attributed more 
to the jealousy of the parsons of that Church than to 
their own incapacity. 

There are, they say, seventy thousand coloured people 
in the island, and not more than fifteen thousand white 
people. As the former increase in intelligence, it is not 
to be supposed that they will submit to the latter. Nor 
are they at all inclined to submission. 

But they have still an up-hill battle before them. They 
are by no means humble in their gait, and their want of 
meekness sets their white neighbours against them. They 
are always proclaiming by their voice and look that they 
are as good as the white man ; but they are always show- 
ing by their voice and look ? also, that they know that this 
is a false boast. 

And then they are by no means popular with the 
negro. A negro, as a rule, will not serve a mulatto when 



COLOURED MEN. 



SI 



he can serve a European or a white Creole. He thinks 
that the mulatto is too near akin to himself to be worthy of 
any respect. In his passion he calls him a nigger— and 
protests that he is not, and never will be like buckra man. 

The negroes complain that the coloured men are sly 
and cunning ; that they cannot be trusted as masters ; 
that they tyrannize, bully, and deceive ; in short, that 
they have their own negro faults. There may, doubtless, 
be some truth in this. They have still a portion of their 
lesson to learn ; perhaps the greater portion. I affirm 
merely that the lesson is being learned. A race of people 
with its good and ill qualities is not formed in a couple of 
centuries. 

And if it be fated that the Anglo-Saxon race in these 
islands is to yield place to another people, and to abandon 
its ground, having done its appointed work, surely such a 
decree should be no cause of sorrow. To have done their 
appointed work, and done it well, — should not this be 
enough for any men ? 

But there are they who protest that such ideas as these 
with reference to this semi- African people are unpatriotic ; 
are unworthy of an Englishman, who should foster the 
ascendency of his own race and his own country. Such 
men will have it as an axiom, that w r hen an Englishman 
has been master once, he should be master always : that 
his dominion should not give way to strange hands, or his 
ascendency yield itself to strange races. It is unpatriotic, 
forsooth, to suggest that these tawny children of the sun 
should get the better of their British lords, and rule the 
roast themselves ! 

Even were it so — should it even be granted that such 
an idea is unpatriotic, one would then be driven back to 
ask whether patriotism be a virtue. It is at any rate a 
virtue in consequence only of the finite aspirations of 
mankind. To love the universe which God has made, 

G 



82 



JAMAICA. 



were man capable of such love, would be a loftier attri- 
bute than any feeling for one's own country. The Gen- 
tile was as dear as the Jew ; the Samaritans as much 
prized as they of Galilee, or as the children of Judah. 

The present position and prospects of the children of 
Great Britain are sufficiently noble, and sufficiently ex- 
tended. One need not begrudge to others their limited 
share in the population and government of the world's 
welfare. While so large a part of North America and 
Australia remain still savage — waiting the white man's 
foot— waiting, in fact, for the foot of the Englishman, 
there can be no reason why we should doom our chil- 
dren to swelter and grow pale within the tropics. A 
certain work has been ours to do there, a certain amount 
of remaining work it is still probably our lot to complete. 
But when that is done ; when civilization, commerce, and 
education shall have been spread ; when sufficient of our 
blood shall have been infused into the veins of those 
children of the sun ; then, I think, we may be ready, 
without stain to our patriotism, to take off our hats and 
bid farewell to the West Indies. 

And be it remembered that I am here speaking of the 
general ascendency, not of the political power of these 
coloured races. It may be that after all we shall still 
have to send out some white Governor with a white 
aide-de-camp and a white private secretary — some three 
or four unfortunate white men to support the dignity of 
the throne of Queen Victoria's great-grandchild's grand- 
child. Such may be, or may not be. To my thinking, 
it would be more for our honour that it should not be so. 
If the honour, glory, and well-being of the child be dear 
to the parents, Great Britain should surely be more proud 
of the United States than of any of her colonies. 

We Britishers have a noble mission. The word I know 
is unpopular, for it has been foully misused ; but it is in 



COLOURED MEN. 



83 



itself a good word, and none other will supply its place. 
We have a noble mission, but we are never content with 
it. It is not enough for us to beget nations, civilize coun- 
tries, and instruct in truth and knowledge the dominant 
races of the coming ages. All this will not suffice unless 
also we can maintain a king over them ! What is it to us, 
or even to them, who may be their king or ruler— or, to 
speak with a nearer approach to sense, from what source 
they be governed — so long as they be happy, prosperous, 
and good ? And yet there are men mad enough to regret 
the United States ! Many men are mad enough to look 
forward with anything but composure to the inevitable, 
happily inevitable day, when Australia shall follow in the 
same path. 

We have risen so high that we may almost boast to 
have placed ourselves above national glory. The wel- 
fare of the coming world is now the proper care of the 
Anglo-Saxon race. 

The coloured people, I have said, have made their way 
into society in Jamaica. That is, they have made a cer- 
tain degree of impression on the mills tone ; which will there- 
fore soon be perforated through and through, and then crum- 
ble to pieces like pumice-stone. Nay, they have been or 
are judges, attorneys-general, prime ministers, leaders of 
the opposition, and what not. The men have so far made 
their way. The difficulty now is with the women. 

And in high questions of society here is always the 
stumbling-block. All manners of men can get themselves 
into a room together without difficulty, and can behave 
themselves with moderate forbearance to each other when 
in it. But there are points on which ladies are harder 
than steel, stiffer than their brocaded silks, more obdurate 
than whalebone. 

' He wishes me to meet Mrs. So-and-So/ a lady said 
to me, speaking of her husband, 'because Mr. So-and- 

G 2 



84 



JAMAICA. 



So is a very respectable good sort of man. I have no 
objection whatever to Mr. So-and-So ; but if I begin with 
her, I know there will be no end.' 

6 Probably not,' I said ; ' when you once commence, 
you will doubtless have to go on — in the good path.' I 
confess that the last w^ords were said sotto voce. On that 
occasion the courage was wanting in me to speak out my 
mind. The lady was very pretty, and I could not endure 
to be among the unfavoured ones. 

' That is just what I have said to Mr. ; but he 

never thinks about such things; he is so very impru- 
dent. If I ask Mrs. So-and-So here, how can I keep 
out Mrs. Such-a-One? They are both very respectable, 
no doubt ; but what were their grandmothers ?' 

Ah! if we were to think of their grandmothers, it 
would doubtless be a dark subject. But what, 0 lady, of 
their grandchildren ? That may be the most important, and 
also most interesting side from whence to view the family. 

' These people marry now,' another lady said to me — 
a lady not old exactly, but old enough to allude to such 
a subject ; and in the tone of her voice I thought I could 
catch an idea that she conceived them in doing so to be 
trenching on the privileges of their superiors. 4 But their 
mothers and grandmothers never thought of looking to 
that at all. Are we to associate with the children of such 
women, and teach our daughters that vice is not to be 
shunned T 

Ah ! dear lady — -not old, but sufficiently old — this 
statement of yours is only too true. Their mothers and 
grandmothers did not think much of matrimony — had but 
little opportunity of thinking much of it. But with whom 
did the fault chiefly lie ? These very people of whom we 
are speaking, would they not be your cousins but for the 
lack of matrimony ? Your uncle, your father, your cou- 
sins, your grandfather, nay, your very brother, are they not 



COLOURED MEN. 



85 



the true criminals in this matter — they who have lived in 
this unhallowed state with women of a lower race ? Tor 
the sinners themselves of either sex I would not ask your 
pardon ; but you might forgive the children's children. 

The life of coloured women in Jamaica some years 
since was certainly too often immoral. They themselves 
were frequently illegitimate, and they were not unwilling 
that their children should be so also. To such a one it 
was preferable to be a white mans mistress than the wife 
of such as herself ; and it did not bring on them the same 
disgrace, this kind of life, as it does on women in England, 
or even, I may say, on women in Europe, nor the same 
bitter punishment. Their master, though he might be 
stern enough and a tyrant, as the owner of slaves living 
on his own little principality might probably be, was 
kinder to her than to the other females around her, and in 
a rough sort of way was true to her. He did not turn 
her out of the house, and she found it to be promotion to 
be the mother of his children and the upper servant in his 
establishment. And in those days, days still so near to 
us, the coloured woman was a slave herself, unless specially 
manumitted either in her own generation or in that im- 
mediately above her. It is from such alliances as these 
that the coloured race of Jamaica has sprung. 

But all this, if one cannot already boast that it is changed, 
is quickly changing. Matrimony is in vogue, and the 
coloured women know their rights, and are inclined to 
claim them. 

Of course among them, as among us at home, and among 
all people, there are various ranks. There are but few 
white labourers in Jamaica, and but few negroes who are 
not labourers. But the coloured people are to be found 
in all ranks, from that of the Prime Minister — for they 
have a Prime Minister in Jamaica — down to the workei 
m the cane-fields. Among their women many are now 



86 



JAMAICA— COLOUKED MEN. 



highly educated, for they send their children to English 
schools. Perhaps if I were to say fashionably educated, I 
might be more strictly correct. They love dearly to shine ; 
to run over the piano with quick and loud fingers ; to 
dance with skill, which they all do, for they have good 
figures and correct ears ; to know and display the little 
tricks and graces of English ladies — such tricks and graces 
as are to be learned between fifteen and seventeen at 
Ealing, Clapham, and Hornsey. 

But the coloured girls of a class below these — perhaps I 
should say two classes below them — are the most amusing 
specimens of Jamaica ladies. I endeavoured to introduce 
my readers- to one at Port Antonio. They cannot be called 
pretty, for the upper part of the face almost always recedes ; 
but they have good figures and well-turned limbs. They 
are singularly free from mauvaise honte, and yet they are 
not impertinent or ill-mannered. They are gracious 
enough with the pale faces when treated graciously, but 
they can show a very high spirit if they fancy that any 
slight is shown to them. They delight to talk contemptu- 
ously of niggers. Those people are dirty niggers, and 
nasty niggers, and mere niggers. I have heard this done 
by one whom I had absolutely taken for a negro, and who 
was not using loud abusive language, but gently speaking 
of an inferior class. 

With these, as indeed with coloured people of a higher 
grade, the great difficulty is with their language. They 
cannot acquire the natural English pronunciation. As 
far as I remember, I have never heard but two negroes 
who spoke unbroken English; and the lower classes of 
the coloured people though they are not equally deficient, 
are still very incapable of plain English articulation. The 
6 th ' is to them, as to foreigners, an insuperable difficulty. 
Even Josephine, it mav be remembered, was hardly per- 
fect in this respect. 



( S7 ) 



CHAPTER VI. 

JAMAICA — WHITE MEN. 

It seems to us natural that white men should hold ascen- 
dency over those who are black or coloured. Although 
we have emancipated our own slaves, and done so much 
to abolish slavery elsewhere, nevertheless we regard the 
negro as born to be a servant. We do not realize it to 
ourselves that it is his right to share with us the high 
places of the world, and that it should be an affair of 
individual merit whether we wait on his beck or he on 
ours. We have never yet brought ourselves so to think, 
and probably never shall. They still are to us a servile 
race. Philanthropical abolitionists will no doubt deny the 
truth of this ; but I have no doubt that the conviction is 
as strong with them — could they analyze their own convic- 
tions — as it is with others. 

Where white men and black men are together, the white 
will order and the black will obey, with an obedience more 
or less implicit according to the terms on which they stand. 
When those terms are slavery, the white men order 
with austerity, and the black obey with alacrity. But 
such terms have been found to be prejudicial to both. 
Each is brutalized by the contact. The black man be- 
comes brutal and passive as a beast of burden ; the white 
man becomes brutal and ferocious as a beast of prey. 

But there are various other terms on which they may 



88 



JAMAICA. 



stand as servants and masters. There are those well- 
understood terms which regulate employment in England 
and elsewhere, under which the poor man's time is his 
money, and the rich man's capital his certain means of 
obtaining labour. As far as we can see these terms, if 
properly carried out, are the best which human wisdom 
can devise for the employment and maintenance of man- 
kind. Here in England they are not always properly 
carried out. At an occasional spot or two things will 
run rusty for a while. There are strikes ; and there are 
occasional gluts of labour, very distressing to the poor 
man ; and occasional gluts of the thing laboured, very 
embarrassing to the rich man. But on the whole, seeing 
that after all the arrangement is only human, here in 
England it does work pretty well. We intended, no 
doubt, when we emancipated our slaves in Jamaica, that 
the affair should work in the same way there. 

But the terms there at present are as far removed from 
the English system as they are from the Cuban, and are 
almost as abhorrent to justice as slavery itself — as abhor- 
rent to justice, though certainly not so abhorrent to mercy 
and humanity. 

What would a farmer say in England if his ploughman 
declined to work, and protested that he preferred going to 
his master's granary and feeding himself and his children 
on his master's corn ? 6 Measter, noa ; 1 beez a-tired thick 
day, and dunna mind to do no wark !' Then the poor- 
house, my friend, the poorhouse ! And hardly that; 
starvation first, and nakedness, and all manner of misery. 
In point of fact our friend the ploughman must go and 
work, even though his o'erlaboured bones be tired, as no 
doubt they often are. He knows it, and does it, and in his 
way is not discontented. And is not this God's ordinance ? 

His ordinance in England and elsewhere, but not so, 
apparently, in Jamaica. There we had a devil's ordinance 



WHITE MEN. 



89 



in those days of slavery ; and having rid ourselves of that, 
we have still a devil's ordinance of another sort. It is not 
perhaps very easy for men to change devil's work into 
heavenly work at once. The ordinance that at present we 
have existing there is that far niente one of lying in the 
sun and eating yams — 6 of eating, not your own yams, you 
lazy, do-nothing, thieving darkee ; but my yams ; mine, 
who am being ruined, root and branch, stock and barrel, 
house and homestead, wife and bairns, because you won't 
come and work for me when I offer you due wages ; you 
thieving, do-nothing, lazy nigger.' 

6 Hush !' will say my angry philanthropist. 6 For the 
sake of humanity, hush ! Will coarse abuse and the call- 
ing of names avail anything? Is he not a man and a 
brother ?' No, my angry philanthropist ; while he will 
not work and will only steal, he is neither the one nor the 
other, in my estimation, As for his being a brother, that 
w r e may say is — fudge; and I will call no professional 
idler a man. 

But the abuse above given is not intended to be looked 
on as coming out of my own mouth, and I am not, there- 
fore, to be held responsible for the wording of it. It is 
inserted there — with small inverted commas, as you see — ■ 
to show the language with which our angry white friends 
in Jamaica speak of the extraordinary condition in which 
they have found themselves placed. 

Slowly — with delay that has been awfully ruinous — 
they now bethink themselves of immigration — immigra- 
tion from the coast of Africa, immigration from China, 
Coolie immigrants from Hindostan. When Trinidad and 
Guiana have helped themselves, then Jamaica bestirs itself. 
And what then? Then the negroes bestir themselves. 
< For heaven's sake let us be looked to ! Are we not to 
be protected from competition ? If labourers be brought 
here, will not these white people again cultivate their 



90 



JAMAICA. 



grounds? Shall we not be driven from our squatting 
patches ? Shall we not starve ; or, almost worse than that, 
shall we not again fall under Adam's curse? Shall we 
not again be slaves, in reality, if not in name ? Shall we 
not have to work ?' 

The negro's idea of emancipation was and is emanci- 
pation not from slavery but from work. To lie in the 
sun and eat breadfruit and yams is h^s idea of being free. 
Such freedom as that has not been intended for man in this 
world ; and I say that Jamaica, as it now exists, is still 
under a devil's ordinance. 

One cannot wonder that the white man here should be 
vituperative in his wrath. Frst came emancipation. 
He bore that with manful courage; for it must be re- 
membered that even in that he had much to bear. The 
price he got for his slave was nothing as compared with 
that slave's actual value. And slavery to him was not 
repugnant as it is to you and me. One's trade is never 
repugnant to one's feelings. But so much he did bear 
with manly courage. He could no longer make slave- 
grown sugar, but he would not at any rate be compelled 
to compete with those who could. The protective duties 
would save him there. 

Then free trade became the fashion, and protective 
duties on sugar were abolished. I beg it may not be 
thought that I am an advocate for such protection. The 
West Indians were, I think, thrown over in a scurvy v 
manner, because they were thrown over by their pro- 
fessed friends. But that was, we all know, the way with 
Sir Eobert Peel. Well, free trade in sugar became the 
law of the land, and then the Jamaica planter found the 
burden too heavy for his back. The money which had 
flown in so freely came in such small driblets that he 
could make no improvement. Portions of his estate went 
out of cultivation, and then the negro who should have 



WHITE MEX. 



91 



tilled the remainder squatted on it, and said, ' No, massa, 
me no workee to-day.' 

And now, to complete the business, now that Jamaica is 
at length looking in earnest for immigration — for it has 
long been looking for immigration with listless dis-earnest 
— the planter is told that the labour of the black man must 
be protected. If he be vituperative, who can wonder at 
it ? To speak the truth, he is somewhat vituperative. 

The white planter of Jamaica is sore and vituperative 
and unconvinced. He feels that he has been ill used, and 
forced to go to the wall ; and that now he is there, he is 
meanly spoken of, as though he were a bore and a nuisance 
— as one of whom the Colonial Office would gladly rid 
itself if it knew how. In his heart of hearts there dwells 
a feeling that after all slavery was not so vile an institution 
— that that devil as well as some others has been painted 
too black. In those old days the work was done, the sugar 
was made, the workmen were comfortably housed and fed, 
and perhaps on his father's estate were kindly treated. At 
any rate, such is his present memory. The money came 
in, things went on pleasantly, and he cannot remember 
that anybody was unhappy. But now — ! Can it be 
wondered at that in his heart of hearts he should still have 
a sort of yearning after slavery ? 

In one sense, at any rate, he has been ill used. The 
turn in the wheel of Fortune has gone against him, as it 
went against the hand-loom weavers when machinery 
became the fashion. Circumstances rather than his own 
fault have brought him low. Well- disciplined energy in 
all the periods of his adversity might perhaps have saved 
him, as it has saved others; but there has been more 
against him than against others. As regards him himself, 
the old-fashioned Jamaica planter, the pure blooded white 
owner of the soil, I think that his day in Jamaica is done. 
The glory, I fear, has departed from his house. The hand- 



82 



JAMAICA. 



loom weavers have been swept into infinite space, and 
their children now poke the engine fires, or piece threads 
standing in a factory. The children of the old Jamaica 
planter must also push their fortunes elsewhere. 

It is a thousand pities, for he was, I may still say is, 
the prince of planters — the true aristocrat of the West 
Indies. He is essentially different as a man from the 
somewhat purse-proud Barbadian, whose estate of two 
hundred acres has perhaps changed hands half a dozen 
times in the last fifty years, or the thoroughly mercantile 
sugar manufacturer of Guiana, He has so many of the 
characteristics of an English country gentleman that he 
does not strike an Englishman as a strange being. He 
has his pedigree, and his family house, and his domain 
around him. He shoots and fishes, and some few years 
since, in the good days, he even kept a pack of hounds. 
He is in the commission of the peace, and as such has much 
to do. A planter in Demerara may also be a magistrate, 
— probably is so ; but the fact does not come forward as a 
prominent part of his life's history. 

In Jamaica too there is scope for a country gentleman* 
They have their counties and their parishes ; in Barbados 
they have nothing but their sugar estates. They have 
county society, local balls, and local race-meetings. They 
have local politics, local quarrels, and strong old-fashioned 
local friendships. In all these things one feels oneself to 
be much nearer to England in Jamaica than in any other 
of the West Indian islands. 

All this is beyond measure pleasant, and it is a thousand 
pities that it should not last. I fear, however, that it will 
not last — that, indeed, it is not now lasting. That dear 
lady's unwillingness to obey her lord's behests, when he 
asked her to call on her brown neighbour, nay, the very 
fact of that lord's request, both go to prove that this is so. 
The lady felt that her neighbour w r as cutting the very 



WHITE MEN. 



93 



ground from under her feet. The lord knew ' that old 
times were changed, old manners gone.' The game was 
almost up when he found himself compelled to make such 
a request. 

At present, when the old planter sits on the magisterial 
bench, a coloured man sits beside him; one probably on 
each side of him. At road sessions he cannot cany out 
his little project because the coloured men out-vote him. 
There is a vacancy for his parish in the House of Assembly. 
The old planter scorns the House of Assembly, and will 
have nothing to do with it. A coloured man is therefore 
chosen, and votes away the white man's taxes. And then 
things worse and worse arise ; not only coloured men get 
into office, but black men also. What is our old aristocratic 
planter to do with a negro churchwarden on one side, and 
a negro coroner on another ? 6 Fancy what our state is,' a 
young planter said to me ; ' I dare not die, for fear I should 
be sat upon by a black man F 

I know that it will be thought by many, and probably 
said by some, that these are distinctions to which we 
ought not to allude. But without alluding to them in 
one's own mind it is impossible to understand the state of 
the country ; and without alluding to them in speech it is 
impossible to explain the state of the country. The fact 
is, that in Jamaica, at the present day, the coloured people 
do stand on strong ground, and that they do not so stand 
with the goodwill of the old aristocracy of the country. 
They have forced their way up, and now loudly protest 
that they intend to keep it. I think that they will keep 
it, and that on the whole it will be well for us Anglo-Saxons 
to have created a race capable of living and working in the 
climate without inconvenience. 

It is singular, however, how little all this is understood 
m England. There it is conceived that white men and 
coloured men, white ladies and coloured ladies, meet 



JAMAICA. 



together and amalgamate without any difference. The 
Duchess of This and Lord That are very happy to have 
at their table some intelligent dark gentleman, or even 
a well-dressed negro, though he may not perhaps be very 
intelligent. There is some little excitement in it, some 
change from the common ; and perhaps also an easy oppor- 
tunity of practising on a small scale those philanthropic 
views which they preach with so much eloquence. When 
one hobnobs over a glass of champagne with a dark 
gentleman, he is in some sort a man and a brother. But 
the duchess and the lord think that because the dark 
gentleman is to their taste, he must necessarily be as much 
to the taste of the neighbours among whom he has been 
born and bred ; of those who have been accustomed to see 
him from his childhood. 

There never was a greater mistake. A coloured man 
may be a fine prophet in London ; but he will be no 
prophet in Jamaica, which is his own country ; no prophet 
at any rate among his white neighbours. 

I knew a case in which a very intelligent — nay, 1 
believe, a highly-educated young coloured gentleman, was 
sent out by certain excellent philanthropic big- wigs to fill 
an official situation in Jamaica. He was a stranger to 
Jamaica, never having been there before. Now, when he 
was so sent out, the home big-wigs alluded to intimated to 
certain other big-wigs in Jamaica that their dark protege 
would be a great acquisition to the society of the place. I 
mention this to show the ignorance of those London big- 
wigs, not as to the capability of the young gentleman 
which probably was not over-rated, but as to the manners 
and life of the place. I imagine that the gentleman has 
hardly once found himself in that society which it was 
supposed he would adorn. The time, however, will pro- 
bably come when he and others of the same class will have 
sufficient society of their own. 



WHITE MEN. 



95 



I have said elsewhere that the coloured people in Ja- 
maica have made their way into society ; and in what I 
now say I may seem to contradict myself. Into what 
may perhaps be termed public society they have made 
their way. Those who have seen the details of colonial 
life will know that there is a public society to which 
people are admitted or not admitted, according to their 
acknowledged rights. Governor's parties, public balls, 
and certain meetings which are semi-official and semi- 
social, are of this nature. A Governor in Jamaica would, 
I imagine, not conceive himself to have the power of ex- 
cluding coloured people from his table, even if he wished 
it. But in Barbados I doubt whether a Governor could, 
if he wished it, do the reverse. 

So far coloured people in Jamaica have made their 
footing good ; and they are gradually advancing beyond 
this. But not the less as a rule are they disliked by the 
old white aristocracy of the country ; in a strong degree 
by the planters themselves, but in a much stronger by 
the planters' wives. 

So much for my theory as to the races of men in 
Jamaica, and as to the social condition of the white and 
coloured people with reference to each other. Kow I 
would say a word or two respecting the white man as he 
himself is, without reference either to his neighbour or to 
his prospects. 

A better fellow cannot be found anywhere than a gentle- 
man of Jamaica, or one with whom it is easier to live on 
pleasant terms. He is generally hospitable, affable, and 
generous ; easy to know, and pleasant when known ; not 
given perhaps to much deep erudition, but capable of 
talking with ease on most subjects of conversation ; fond 
of society, and of pleasure, if you choose to call it so ; but 
not generally addicted to low pleasures. He is often 
witty, and has a sharp side to his tongue if occasion be 
given him to use it. He is not generally, I think, a 



96 



JAMAICA. 



hard-working man. Had he been so, the country perhaps 
would not have been in its present condition. But he is 
bright and clever, and in spite of all that he has gone 
through, he is at all times good-humoured. 

No men are fonder of the country to which they belong, 
or prouder of the name of Great Britain than these Ja- 
maicans. It has been our policy — and, as regards our 
larger colonies, the policy I have no doubt has been bene- 
ficial — to leave our dependencies very much to them- 
selves ; to interfere in the way of governing as little as 
might be; and to withdraw as much as possible from 
any participation in their internal concerns. This policy 
is anything but popular with the white aristocracy of 
Jamaica. They would fain, if it were possible, dispense 
altogether with their legislature, and be governed alto- 
gether from home. In spite of what they have suffered, 
they are still willing to trust the statesmen of England, 
but are most unwilling to trust the statesmen of Jamaica. 

Nothing is more peculiar than the way in which the 
word ' home ' is used in Jamaica, and indeed all through 
the West Indies. With the white people, it always sig- 
nifies England, even though the person using the word 
has never been there. I could never trace the use of the 
word in Jamaica as applied by white men or white women 
to the home in which they lived, not even though that 
home had been the dwelling of their fathers as well as of 
themselves.. The word c home ' with them is sacred, and 
means something holier than a habitation in the tropics. 
It refers always to the old country. 

In this respect, as in so many others, an Englishman 
differs greatly from a Frenchman. Though we English, 
as a rule, are much more given to colonize than our neigh- 
bours ; though we spread ourselves over the face of the globe, 
while they have established comparatively but few settle- 
ments in the outer world ; nevertheless, when we leave 
our country, we almost always do so with some idea, be 



WHITE MEN. 



97 



it ever so vague, that we shall return to it again, and 
again make it our home. But the Frenchman divests 
himself of any such idea. He also loves France, or at any 
rate loves Paris ; but his object is to carry his Paris with 
him ; to make a Paris for himself, whether it be in a sugar 
island among the Antilles, or in a trading town upon the 
Levant. 

And in some respects the Frenchman is the wiser man. 
He never looks behind him with regret. He does his best 
to make his new house comfortable. The spot on which 
he fixes is his home, and so he calls it, and so regards it. 
But with an Englishman in the West Indies — even with 
an English Creole — England is always his home. 

If the people in Jamaica have any prejudice, it is on 
the subject of heat. I suppose they have a general idea 
that their island is hotter than England ; but they never 
reduce this to an individual idea respecting their own 
habitation. 

6 Come and dine with me,' a man says to you; ' 1 can 
give you a cool bed/ The invitation at first sounded 
strange to me, but I soon got used to it ; I soon even 
liked it, though I found too often that the promise was 
not kept. How could it be kept while the quicksilver 
was standing at eighty-five in the shade ? 

And each man boasts that Ms house is ten degrees 
cooler than that of his neighbour ; and each man, if you 
contest the point, has a reason to prove why it must be so. 

But a stranger, at any rate round Kingston, is apt to 
put the matter in a different light. One place may be 
hotter than another, but cool is a word which he never 
uses. On the whole, I think that the heat of Kingston, 
Jamaica, is more oppressive than that of any other place 
among the British West Indies. When one gets down 
to the Spanish coast, then, indeed, one can look back even 
to Kingston with regret. 

H 



( 93 ) 



CHAPTER VII 

JAMAICA— SUGAR. 

That Jamaica was a land of wealth, rivalling the East in 
its means of riches, nay, excelling it as a market for capi- 
tal, as a place in which money might be turned ; and that 
it now is a spot on the earth almost more poverty-stricken 
than any other — so much is known almost to all men. 
That this change was brought about by the manumission 
of the slaves, which was completed in 1838, of that also 
the English world is generally aware. And there pro- 
bably the usual knowledge about Jamaica ends. And we 
may also say that the solicitude of Englishmen at large 
goes no further. The families who are connected with 
Jamaica by ties of interest are becoming fewer and fewer. 
Property has been abandoned as good for nothing, and 
nearly forgotten ; or has been sold for what wretched trifle 
it would fetch ; or left to an overseer, who is hardly ex- 
pected to send home proceeds — is merely ordered impe- 
ratively to apply for no subsidies. Fathers no longer send 
their younger sons to make their fortunes there. Young 
English girls no longer come out as brides. Dukes and 
earls do not now govern the rich gem of the West, 
spending their tens of thousands in royal magnificence, 
and laying by other tens of thousands for home consump- 
tion. In lieu of this, some governor by profession, unfor- 
tunate for the moment, takes J amaica with a groan, as a 



JAMAICA — SUGAR. 



90 



stepping-stone to some better Barataria — New Zealand 
perhaps, or Frazer Kiver ; and by strict economy tries to 
save the price of his silver forks. Equerries, aides-de- 
camp, and private secretaries no longer flaunt it about 
Spanish Town. The flaunting about Spanish Town is 
now of a dull sort. Ichabod ! The glory of that house is 
gone. The palmy days of that island are over. 

Those who are failing and falling in the world excite 
but little interest ; and so it is at present with Jamaica. 
From time to time we hear that properties which used to 
bring five thousand pounds a year, are not now worth five 
hundred pounds in fee simple. We hear it, thank our 
stars that we have not been brought up in the Jamaica 
line, and there's an end of it. If we have young friends 
whom we wish to send forth into the world, we search the 
maps with them at our elbows ; but we put our hands over 
the West Indies — over the first fruits of the courage and 
skill of Columbus — as a spot tabooed by Providence. Nay, 
if we could, we would fain forget Jamaica altogether. 

But there it is ; a spot on the earth not to be lost sight 
of or forgotten altogether, let us wish it ever so much. It 
belongs to us, and must be in some sort thought of and 
managed, and, if possible, governed. Though the utter 
sinking of Jamaica under the sea might not be regarded as 
a misfortune, it is not to be thought of that it should be- 
long to others than Britain. How should we look at the 
English politician who would propose to sell it to the 
United States ; or beg Spain to take it as an appendage to 
Cuba ? It is one of the few sores in our huge and healthy 
carcase ; and the sore has been now running so long, that 
we have almost given over asking whether it be curable. 

This at any rate is certain — it will not sink into the 
sea, but will remain there, inhabited, if not by white men, 
then by coloured men or black ; and must, unfortunately, 
be governed by us English. 

LofC. " h 2 



100 



JAMAICA. 



We have indulged our antipathy to cruelty by abolish- 
ing slavery. We have made the peculiar institution an 
impossibility under the British crown. But in doing so 
we overthrew one particular interest ; and, alas ! we over- 
threw also, and necessarily so, the holders of that interest. 
As for the twenty millions which we gave to the slave- 
owners, it was at best but as though we had put down 
awls and lasts by Act of Parliament, and, giving the shoe- 
makers the price of their tools, told them they might 
make shoes as best they could without them ; failing any 
such possibility, that they might live on the price of 
their lost articles. Well ; the shoemakers did their best, 
and continued their trade in shoes under much difficulty. 

But then we have had another antipathy to indulge, 
and have indulged it — our antipathy to protection. We 
have abolished the duty on slave-grown sugar; and the 
shoemakers who have no awls and lasts have to compete 
sadly with their happy neighbours, possessed of these 
useful shoemaking utensils. 

Make no more shoes, but make something in lieu of 
shoes, we say to them. The world wants not shoes only ; 
— make hats. Grive up your sugar, and bring forth pro- 
duce that does not require slave labour. Could the men 
of Jamaica with one voice speak out such words as the 
experience of the world might teach them, they would 
probably answer thus : — c Yes ; in two hundred years 
or so we will do. so. So long it will take to alter the 
settled trade and habit of a community. In the mean 
time, for ourselves, our living selves, our late luxurious 
homes, our idle, softly-nurtured Creole wives, our children 
coming and to come — for ourselves — what immediate com- 
pensation do you intend to offer us, Mr. Bull ?' 

Mr. Bull, with sufficient anger at such importunity ; 
with sufficient remembrance of his late twenty millions 
of pounds sterling; with some plain allusions to that 



SUGAR. 



101 



payment, buttons up his breeches-pocket and growls 
angrily. 

Abolition of slavery is good, and free trade is good. 
Such little insight as a plain man may have into the affairs 
around him seems to me to suffice for the expression of 
such opinion. Nor will I presume to say that those who 
proposed either the one law or the other were prema- 
ture. To get a good law passed and out of hand is 
always desirable. There are from day to day so many 
new impediments ! But the law having been passed, we 
should think somewhat of the sufferers. 

Planters in Jamaica assert that when the abolition of 
slavery was hurried on by the termination of the appren- 
tice system before the time first stipulated, they were pro- 
mised by the government at home that their interests 
should be protected by high duties on slave-grown sugar. 
That such pledge was ever absolutely made, I do not 
credit. But that, if made, it could be worth anything, no 
man looking to the history of England could imagine. 
What minister can pledge his successors? In Jamaica 
it is said that the pledge was given and broken by the 
same man — by Sir Robert Peel. But when did Sir 
Robert Peel's pledge in one year bind even his own con- 
duct in the next ? 

The fact perhaps is this, that no one interest can ever 
be allowed to stand in the way of national progress. We 
could not stop machinery for the sake of the hand-loom 
weavers. The poor hand-loom weavers felt themselves 
aggrieved ; knew that the very bread was taken from their 
mouths, their hard-earned cup from their lips. They felt, 
poor weavers ! that they could not take themselves in 
middle life to poking fires and greasing 'wheels. Time, 
the eater of things, has now pretty well eaten the hand- 
loom weavers — them and their miseries. Must it not be 
so also with the Jamaica planters ? 



102 



JAMAICA. 



In the mean time the sight, as regards the white man, 
is a sad one to see ; and almost the sadder in that the last 
three or four years have been in a slight degree prosperous 
to the Jamaica sugar-grower ; so that this question of 
producing sugar in that island at a rate that will pay for 
itself is not quite answered. The drowning man still 
clings by a rope's end, though it be but by half an inch, 
and that held between his teeth. Let go, thou unhappy 
one, and drown thyself out of the way ! Is it not thus 
that Great Britain, speaking to him from the high places 
in Exeter Hall, shouts to him in his death struggles ? 

Are Englishmen in general aware that half the sugar 
estates in Jamaica, and I believe more than half the 
coffee plantations, have gone back into a state of bush ?— 
that all this land, rich with the richest produce only 
some thirty years since, has now fallen back into wilder- 
ness ? — that the world • has hereabouts so retrograded ? — 
that chaos and darkness have res wallowed so vast an extent 
of the most bountiful land that civilization had ever 
mastered, and that too beneath the British government ? 

And of those who are now growing canes in Jamaica a 
great portion are gentlemen who have lately bought their 
estates for the value of the copper in the sugar-boilers, 
and of the metal in the rum-stills. If to this has been 
added anything like a fair value for wheels in the machi- 
nery, the estate has not been badly sold. 

Some estates there are, and they are not many, which 
are still worked by the agents — attorneys is the proper 
word — of rich proprietors in England ; of men so rich 
that they have been able to bear the continual drain of 
properties that for years have been always losing — of men 
who have had wealth and spirit to endure this. It is 
hardly necessary to say that they are few ; and that many 
whose spirit has been high, but wealth insufficient, have 
gone grievously to the wall in the attempt. 



SUGAK. 



103 



And there are still some who, living on the spot, have 
hitherto pulled through it all ; who have watched houses 
falling and the wilderness progressing, and have still stuck 
to their homes and their work ; men whose properties for 
ten years, counting from the discontinuance of protection, 
have gradually grown less and less beneath their eyes, till 
utter want has been close to them. And yet they have 
held on. In the good times they may have made five 
hundred hogsheads of sugar every year. It has come to 
that with them that in some years they have made but 
thirty. But they have made that thirty and still held on. 
All honour at least to them ! For their sake, if for that 
of no others, we would be tempted to pray that these few 
years of their prosperity may be prolonged and grow 
somewhat fatter. 

The exported produce of Jamaica consists chiefly of 
sugar and rum. The article next in importance is coffee. 
Then they export also logwood, arrowroot, pimento, and 
gitiger : but not in quantities to make them of much 
national value. Mahogany is also cut here, and fustic, 
lu; sugar and rum are still the staples of the island. 
Nov all the world knows that rum and sugar are made 
from the same plant. 

And yet every one will tell you that the cane can 
hardly be got to thrive in Jamaica without slave labour ; 
will tell you, also, that the land of Jamaica is so generous 
that it will give forth many of the most wonderful fruits 
of the world, almost without labour. Putting these two 
things together, would not any simple man advise them 
to abandon sugar ? Ah ! he would be very simple if he 
were to do so with a voice that could make itself well 
heard, and should dare to do so in Jamaica. 

Mer. there are generally tolerant of opinion on most 
matters, and submit to be talked to on their own short- 
comings and colonial mismanagement with a decent grace. 



104 



JAMAICA. 



You may advise them to do this, and counsel them to do 
that, referring to their own immediate concerns, without 
receiving that rebuke which your interference might 
probably deserve ; but do not try their complaisance too 
far : do not advise them to give over making sugar. If 
you give such advice in a voice loud enough to be heard, 
the island will soon be too hot to hold you. Sugar is 
loved there, whether wisely loved or not. If not wisely, 
then too well. 

When I hear a Jamaica planter talking of sugar, 1 can- 
not but think of Burns, and his muse that had mads him 
poor and kept him so. And the planter is just as ready 
to give up his canes as the poet was to abandon his song. 

The production of sugar and the necessary concomitant 
production of rum — for in Jamaica the two do necessarily 
go together — is not, one would say, an alluring occupa- 
tion. I do not here intend to indulge my readers with a 
detailed description of the whole progress, from the plant- 
ing or ratooning of the cane till the sugar and the rim 
are shipped. Books there are, no doubt, much wiser than 
mine in which the whole process is developed. But I 
would wish this much to be understood, that the sugar- 
planter, as things at present are, must attend to and be 
master of, and practically carry out three several trsdes. 
He must be an agriculturist, and grow his cane ; and like 
all agriculturists must take his crop from the ground and 
have it ready for use ; as the wheat grower does in Eng- 
land, and the cotton grower in America. But then he 
must also be a manufacturer, and that in a branch of 
manufacture which requires complicated machinery. The 
wheat grower does not grind his wheat and make it into 
bread. Nor does the cotton grower fabricate calico. But 
the grower of canes must make sugar. He must have 
his boiling-houses, and trash-houses ; his water power and 
his steam power ; he must dabble in machinery, and, in 



SUGAR. 



105 



fact, be a Manchester manufacturer as well as a Kent 
farmer. And then, over and beyond this, he must be a 
distiller. The sugar leaves him fit for your puddings, 
and the rum fit for your punch — always excepting the 
slight article of adulteration which you are good enough 
to add afterwards yourselves. Such a complication of 
trades would not be thought very alluring to a gentleman 
farmer in England. 

And yet the Jamaica proprietor holds faithfully by his 
sugar-canes. 

It has been said that sugar is an article w r hich for its 
proper production requires slave labour. That this is 
absolutely so is certainly not the fact, for very good sugar 
is made in Jamaica without it. That thousands of pounds 
could be made with slaves where only hundreds are made 
— or, as the case may be, are lost — without it, I do not 
doubt. The complaint generally resolves itself to this, 
that free labour in Jamaica cannot be commanded ; that 
it cannot be had always, and up to a certain given quan- 
tity at a certain moment ; that labour is scarce, and there- 
fore high priced, and that labour being high priced, a 
negro can live on half a day's wages, and will not there- 
fore work the wmole day- — will not always work any part 
of the day at all, seeing that his yams, his breadfruit, and 
liis plantains are ready to his hands. But the slaves !— 
Oh ! those were the good times ! 

I have in another chapter said a few words about the 
negroes as at present existing in Jamaica, I also shall say 
a few words as to slavery elsewhere ; and I will endea- 
vour not to repeat myself. This much, however, is at 
least clear to all men, that you cannot eat your cake and 
have it. You cannot abolish slavery to the infinite good 
of your souls, your minds, and intellects, and yet retain it 
for the good of your pockets. Seeing that these men are 
free, it is worse than useless to begrudge them the use of 



106 



JAMAICA. 



their freedom. If I have means to lie in the sun and 
meditate idle, why, 0 my worthy taskmaster ! should you 
expect me to pull out at thy behest long reels of cotton, 
long reels of law jargon, long reels of official verbosity, 
long reels of gossamer literature. Why, indeed? Not 
having means so to lie, I do pull out the reels, taking 
such wages as I can get, and am thankful. But my 
friend and brother over there, my skin-polished, shining, 
oil-fat negro, is a richer man than I. He lies under his 
mango-tree, and eats the luscious fruit in the sun ; he 
sends his black urchin up for a breadfruit, and behold the 
family table is spread. He pierces a cocoa-nut, and, lo ! 
there is his beverage. He lies on the grass surrounded by 
oranges, bananas, and pine-apples. 0 my hard task- 
master of the sugar-mill, is he not better off than thou ? 
why should he work at thy order ? ' No, massa, me 
weak in me belly ; me no workee to-day ; me no like 
workee just 'em little moment.' Yes, Sambo has learned 
to have his own way ; though hardly learned to claim his 
right without lying. 

That this is all bad — bad nearly as bad can be — bad 
perhaps as anything short of slavery, all men will allow. 
It will be quite as bad in the long run for the negro as for 
the white man — worse, indeed ; for the white man will by 
degrees wash his hands of the whole concern. But as 
matters are, one cannot wonder that the black man will 
not work. The question stands thus : cannot he be made 
to do so ? Can it not be contrived that he shall be free, 
free as is the Englishman, and yet compelled, as is the 
Englishman, to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow ? 

I utterly disbelieve in statistics as a science, and am 
never myself guided by any long-winded statement of 
figures from a Chancellor of the Exchequer or such like 
big- wig. To my mind it is an hallucination. Such state- 
ments are 6 ignes fatui/ Figures, when they go beyond 



SUGAE. 



107 



six in number, represent to me not facts, but dreams, or 
sometimes worse than dreams. I have therefore no right 
myself to offer statistics to the reader. But it was stated 
in the Census taken in 1844 that there were sixteen thou- 
sand white people in the island, and about three hundred 
thousand blacks. There were also about seventy thou- 
sand coloured people. Putting aside for the moment the 
latter as a middle class, and regarding the black as the free 
servants of the white, one would say that labour should 
not be so deficient. But what if your free servants don't 
work ; unfortunately know how to live without working ? 

The political question that presses upon one in viewing 
Jamaica, is certainly this — Will the growth of sugar pay 
in Jamaica, or will it not ? I have already stated my 
conviction that a change is now taking place in the very 
blood and nature of the men who are destined to be the 
dominant classes in these western tropical latitudes. That 
the white man, the white Englishman, or white English 
Creole, will ever again be a thoroughly successful sugar 
grower in Jamaica I do not believe. That the brown man 
may be so is very probable ; but great changes must first 
be made in the countries around him. 

While the 6 peculiar institution' exists in Cuba, Brazil, 
Porto Eico, and the Southern States, it cannot, I think, 
come to pass. A plentiful crop in Cuba may in any year 
bring sugar to a price which will give no return whatever 
to the Jamaica grower. A spare crop in Jamaica itself 
will have the same result ; and there are many causes for 
spare crops ; drought, for instance, and floods, and abound- 
ing rats, and want of capital to renew and manure the 
plants. At present the trade will only give in good years 
a fair profit to those who have purchased their land almost 
for nothing. A trade that cannot stand many misfortunes 
can hardly exist prosperously. This trade has stood very 
many : but I doubt whether it can stand more. 



108 



JAMAICA — SUGAR . 



The ' peculiar institution/ however, will not live for 
ever. The time must come when abolition will be popu- 
lar even in Louisiana. And when it is law there, it will 
be the law in Cuba also. If that day shall have arrived 
before the last sugar-mill in the island shall have been 
stopped, Jamaica may then compete with other free 
countries. The world will not do without sugar, let it be 
produced by slaves or free men. 

But though a man may venture to foretell the abolition 
of slavery in the States, and yet call himself no prophet, 
he must be a wiser man than I who can foretell the time. 
It will hardly be to-morrow ; nor yet the next day. It 
will scarcely come so that we may see it. Before it does 
come it may easily be that the last sugar-mill in peor 
Jamaica will in truth have stopped. . 



{ 109 ) 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JAMAICA — EMPEROR SOULOUQUE, 

We all remember the clay when Mr. Smith landed at 
Newhaven and took up his abode quietly at the inn there. 
Poor Mr. Smith ! In the ripeness of time he has betaken 
himself a stage further on his long journey, travelling now 
probably without disguise, either that of a citizen King or 
of a citizen Smith. 

And now, following his illustrious example, the ex- 
Emperor Soulouque has sought the safety always to be 
found on English territories by sovereigns out of place. 
In January, 1859, his Highness landed at Kingston, 
Jamaica, having made his town of Port au Prince and his 
kingdom of Hayti somewhat too hot to hold him. 

All the world probably knows that King Soulouque is a 
black man. One blacker never endured the meridian 
heat of a tropical sun. 

The island which was christened Hispaniola by Colum- 
bus, has resumed its ancient name of Hayti. It is, how- 
ever, divided into two kingdoms— two republics one may 
now say. That to the east is generally called St. Domingo, 
having borrowed the name given by Columbus to a town. 
This is by far the larger, but at the same time the poorer 
division of the island. That to the west is now called 
Hayti, and over this territory Soulouque reigned as em- 
peror. He reigned as emperor, and was so styled, having 



110 



JAMAICA. 



been elected as President ; in which little change in his 
state he has been imitated by a neighbour of ours with a 
success almost equal to his own. 

For some dozen years the success of Soulouque was very 
considerable. He has had a dominion which has been 
almost despotic ; and has, so rumour says, invested some 
three or four hundred thousand pounds in European funds. 
In this latter point his imitator has, I fear, hardly 
equalled him. 

But a higher ambition fired the bosom of Soulouque, 
and he sighed after the territories of his neighbours — not 
generously to bestow them on other kings, but that he 
might keep them on his own behoof. Soulouque desired to 
be emperor of the whole island, and he sounded his trum- 
pet and prepared his arms. He called together his army, 
and put on the boots of Bombastes. He put on the boots 
of Bombastes and bade his men meet him — at the Barley- 
mow or elsewhere. 

But it seems that his men were slow in coming to the 
rendezvous. Nothing that Soulouque could say, nothing 
that he could do, no admonitions through his sternest 
government ministers, no reading of the mutiny act by his 
commanders and generals, would induce them actually to 
make an assault at arms. Then Soulouque was angry, 
and in his anger he maltreated his army. He put his 
men into pits, and kept them there without food ; left 
them to be eaten by vermin — to be fed upon while they 
could not feed ; and played, upon the whole, such a melo- 
drama of autocratic tricks and fantasies as might have done 
honour to a white Nero. Then at last black human nature 
could endure no more, and Soulouque, dreading a pit for 
his own majesty, was forced to run. 

In one respect he was more fortunate than Mr. Smith. 
In his dire necessity an English troop-ship was found to 
be at hand. The 6 Melbourne ' was steaming home from 



iMPEKOE SOULOUQUE, 



111 



Jamaica, and the officer m command having been appealed 
to for assistance, consented to return to Kingston with the 
royal suite. This she did ; and on the 22nd of January, 
Soulouque, with his wife and daughter, his prime minister, 
and certain coal-black maids of honour, was landed at the 
quays. 

When under the segis of British protection the ex- 
emperor was of course safe. But he had not exactly 
chosen a bed of roses for himself in coming to Jamaica, 
It might be probable that a bed of roses was not easily to 
be found at the moment. At Kingston there were col- 
lected many Haytians, who had either been banished by 
Soulouque in the plenitude of his power, or had run from 
him as he was now running from his subjects. There 
were many whose brothers and fathers had been destroyed 
in Hayti, whose friends had perished under the hands of 
the tyrant's executioner, for whom pits would have been 
prepared had they not vanished speedily. These refugees 
had sought safety also in Jamaica, and for them a day of 
triumph had now arrived. They were not the men to 
allow an opportunity for triumph to pass without enjoy- 
ing it. 

These were mostly brown men — men of a mixed race ; 
men, and indeed women also. With Soulouque and his 
government such had found no favour. He had been glad 
to welcome white residents in his kingdom, and of course 
had rejoiced in having black men as his subjects. But of 
the coloured people he had endeavoured in every way to 
rid himself. He had done so to a great extent, and many 
of them were now ready to welcome him at Kingston. 

Kingston does not rejoice in public equipages of much 
pretension : nor are there to be hired many carriages fit 
tor the conveyance of royalty, even in its decadence. Two 
small, wretched vehicles were however procured, such as 
ply in the streets there, and carry passengers to the Spanish 



112 



JAMAICA. 



Town railway at sixpence a head. In one of these sat 
Soulouque and his wife, with a British officer on the box 
beside the driver, and with two black policemen hanging 
behind. In another, similarly guarded, were packed the 
Countess Olive — that being the name of the ex-emperor's 
daughter — and her attendants. And thus, travelling by 
different streets, they made their way to their hotel. 

One would certainly have wished, in despite of those 
wretched pits, that they had been allowed to do so with- 
out annoyance ; but such was not the case. The banished 
Haytians had it not in their philosophy to abstain from 
triumphing on a fallen enemy. They surrounded the 
carriages with a dusky cloud, and received the fugitives 
with howls of self-congratulation at their abasement. Nor 
was this all. When the royal party was duly lodged at 
the Date-Tree tavern, the ex-Haytians lodged themselves 
opposite. There they held a dignity ball in token of 
their joy ; and for three days maintained their position in 
order that poor Soulouque might witness their rejoicings. 

' They have said a mass over him, the wretched being ? 
said the landlady of my hotel to me, triumphantly. 

6 Said a mass over him ?' 

6 Yes, the black nigger ; — king, indeed ! said a mass over 
him 'cause he's down. Thank God for that ! And pray 
God keep him so. Him king indeed, the black nigger !' 
All which could not have been comfortable for poor 
Soulouque. 

The royal party had endeavoured in the first instance 
to take up their quarters at this lady's hotel, or lodging- 
house, as they are usually called. But the patriotic sister 
of Mrs. Seacole would listen to no such proposition. ' I 
won't keep a house for black men,' she said to me. e As 
for kings, I would despise myself to have a black king. 
As for that black beast and his black women — Bah !' 
Now this was certainly magnanimous, for Soulouque would 



EMPEROR SOULOUQUE. 



113 



have been prepared to pay well for his accommodation, 
But tlie ordinary contempt which the coloured people have 
for negroes was heightened in this case by the presumption 
of black royalty — perhaps also by loyalty. ' Queen Vic- 
toria is my king,' said Mrs. Seacole's sister. 

I must confess that I endeavoured to excite her loyalty 
rather than her compassion. A few friends were to dine 
with me that day ; and where would have been my turtle 
soup had Soulouque and his suite taken possession of the 
house ? 

The deposed tyrant, when he left Hayti, published a 
short manifesto, in which he set forth that he, Faustin the 
First, having been elected by the free suffrages of his fellow 
countrymen, had endeavoured to govern them well, actuated 
by a pure love of his country ; that he had remained at 
his post as long as his doing so had been pleasing to his 
countrymen; but that now, having discovered by sure 
symptoms that his countrymen desired to see him no longer 
on the throne, he voluntarily and immediately abdicated 
his seat. From henceforth he could only wish well to 
the prosperity of Hayti. 

Free suffrages of his people ! Ah, me ! Such farces 
strike us but as farces when Hayti and such like lands are 
concerned. But when they come nearer to us they are 
very sad. 

Soulouque is a stout, hale man, apparently of sixty-five 
or sixty-eight years of age. It is difficult to judge of the 
expression of a black man's face unless it be very plainly 
seen ; but it appeared to me to be by no means repulsive. 
He has been, I believe, some twelve years Emperor of 
Hayti, and as he has escaped with wealth, he cannot be 
said to have been unfortunate. 



I 



( 114 ) 



CHAPTER IX. 

JAMAICA — THE GOVERNMENT. 

Queen, Lords, and Commons, with the full paraphernalia 
of triple readings, adjournments of the house, and counting 
out, prevails in Jamaica as it does in Great Britain. 

By this it will be understood that there is a Governor, 
representing the Crown, whose sanction or veto is of 
course given, as regards important measures, in accordance 
with instructions from the Colonial Office. The Governor 
has an Executive Committee, which tallies with our Cabi- 
net. It consists at present of three members, one of whom 
belongs to the upper House and two to the lower. The 
Governor may appoint a fourth member if it so please 
him. These gentlemen are paid for their services, and 
preside over different departments, as do our Secretaries 
of State, &c. And there is a Most Honourable Privy 
Council, just as we have at home. Of this latter, the 
members may or may not support the Governor, seeing 
that they are elected for life. 

The House of Lords is represented by the Legislative 
Council. This quasi-peerage is of course not hereditary, 
but the members sit for life, and are nominated by the 
Governor. They are seventeen in number. The Legis- 
lative Council can of course put a veto on any bill. 

The House of Assembly stands in the place of the 



THE GOVERNMENT. 



115 



House of Commons. It consists of forty-seven members, 
two being elected by nineteen parishes, and three each by 
three other parishes, those, namely, which contain the 
towns of Kingston, Spanish Town, and Port Royal. 

In one respect this House of Commons falls short of 
| the privileges and powers of our House at home. It 
cannot suggest money bills. No honourable member can 
make a proposition that so much a year shall be paid for 
such a purpose. The government did not wish to be 
driven to exercise the invidious power of putting repeated 
vetos on repeated suggestions for semi-public expenditure ; 
and therefore this power has been taken away. But any 
honourable member can bring before the House a motion 
to the effect that the Governor be recommended himself 
to propose, by one of the Executive Committee, such or 
such -a money bill ; and then if the Governor decline, the 
House can refuse to pass his supplies, and can play the 
e red devil ' with his Excellency. So that it seems to 
come pretty nearly to the same thing. 

At home in England, Crown Lords and Commons 
really seem to do very well. Some may think that the 
system wants a little shove this way, some the other. 
Reform may, or may not, be more or less needed. But 
on the whole we are governed honestly, liberally, and 
successfully; with at least a greater share of honesty, 
liberality, and success than has fallen to the lot of most 
other people. Each of the three estates enjoys the re- 
spect of the people at large, and a seat, either among the 
Lords or the Commons, is an object of high ambition. 
The system may therefore be said to be successful. 

But it does not follow that because it answers in Eng- 
land it should answer in Jamaica ; that institutions which 
suit the country which is perhaps in the whole world the 
furthest advanced in civilization, wealth, and public 
honesty, should suit equally well an island which is un- 

i 2 



116 



JAMAICA. 



fortunately very far from being advanced in those good 
qualities ; whose civilization, as regards the bulk of the 
population, is hardly above that of savages, whose wealth 
has vanished, and of whose public honesty — I will say 
nothing. Of that I myself will say nothing, but the Ja- 
maicans speak of it in terms which are not flattering to 
their own land. 

I do not think that the system does answer in Jamaica. 
In the first place, it must be remembered that it is carried 
on there in a manner very different from that exercised 
in our other West-Indian colonies. In Jamaica any man 
may vote who pays either tax or rent ; but by a late law 
he must put in his claim to vote on a ten shilling stamp. 
There are in round numbers three hundred thousand 
blacks, seventy thousand coloured people, and fifteen 
thousand white ; it may therefore easily be seen in what 
hands the power of electing must rest. Now in Barbados 
no coloured man votes at all. A coloured man or nesro 

o 

is doubtless qualified to vote if he own a freehold ; but 
Vthen, care is taken that such shall not own freeholds. In 
Trinidad, the legislative power is almost entirely in the 
\j hands of the Crown. In Guiana, which I look upon as 
the best governed of them all, this is very much the case. 

It is not that I would begrudge the black man the 
right of voting because he is black, or that I would say 
that he is and must be unfit to vote, or unfit even to sit 
in a house of assembly; but the amalgamation as at 
present existing is bad. The objects sought after by a 
free and open representation of the people are not gained 
unless those men are as a rule returned who are most 
respected in the commonwealth, so that the body of which 
they are the units may be respected also. This object 
is not achieved in Jamaica, and consequently the House 
of Assembly is not respected. It does not contain the 
men of most weight and condition in the island, and is 



THE GOVERNMENT. 



117 



contemptuously spoken of even in Jamaica itself, and 
even by its own members. 

Some there are, some few, who have gotten themselves 
to be elected, in order that things which are already bad 
may not, if such can be avoided, become worse. They, 
no doubt, are those who best do their duty by the country 
in which their lot lies. But, for the most part, those 
who should represent Jamaica will not condescend to take 
part in the debates, nor will they solicit the votes of the 
negroes. 

It would appear from these observations as though I 
thought that the absolute ascendency of the white man 
should still be maintained in Jamaica. By no means. 
Let him be ascendant who can— in Jamaica or elsewhere 
— who honestly can. I doubt whether such ascendency, 
the ascendency of Europeans and white Creoles, can be 
longer maintained in this island. It is not even now 
maintained ; and for that reason chiefly I hold that this 
system of Lords and Commons is ■ not compatible with 
the present genius of the place. Let coloured men fill 
the public offices, and enjoy the sweets of official pickings. 
I would by no means wish to interfere with any good 
things which fortune may be giving them in this respect. 
But I think there would be greater probability of their 
advancing in their new profession honestly and usefully, 
if they could be made to look more to the Colonial Office 
at home, and less to the native legislature. 

At home, no member of the House of Commons can 
hold a government contract. The members of the House 
of Assembly in Jamaica have no such prejudicial em- 
bargo attached to the honour of their seats. They can 
hold the government contracts ; and it is astonishing how 
many of them are in their hands. 

The great point which strikes a stranger is this, that 
the House of Assembly is not respected in the island. 



118 



JAMAICA. 



Jamaicans themselves have no confidence in it. If the 
white men could be polled, the majority I think would 
prefer to be rid of it altogether, and to be governed, as 
Trinidad is governed, by a Governor with a council ; of 
course with due power of reference to the Colonial 
Office. 

Let any man fancy what England would be if the 
House of Commons were ludicrous in the eyes of English- 
men ; if men ridiculed or were ashamed of ail their 
debates. Such is the case as regards the Jamaica House 
of Commons. 

In truth, there is not room for a machinery so compli- 
cated in this island. The handful of white men can no 
longer have it all their own way ; and as for the negroes 
— let any warmest advocate of the 6 man and brother ' 
position say whether he has come across three or four 
of the class who are fit to enact laws for their own guid- 
ance and the guidance of others. 

It pains me , to write words which may seem to be op- 
posed to humanity and a wide philanthropy ; but a spade 
is a spade, and it is worse than useless to say that it is 
something else. 

The proof of the truth of what I say with reference to 
this system of Lords and Commons is to be found in the 
eating of the pudding. It may not perhaps be fair to 
adduce the prosperity of Barbados, and to compare it 
with the adversity of Jamaica, seeing that local circum- 
stances were advantageous to Barbados at the times of 
emancipation and equalization of the sugar duties. Bar- 
bados was always able to command a plentiful supply of 
labour. But it is quite fair to compare Jamaica with 
Guiana or Trinidad. In both these colonies the negro 
was as well able to shirk his work as in Jamaica. 

And in these two colonies the negro did shirk his work, 
just as he did in Jamaica ; and does still to a great extent. 



THE GOVERNMENT. 



119 



The limits of these colonies are as extensive as Jamaica 
is, and the negro can squat. They are as fertile as J amaica 
is, and the negro can procure his food almost without 
trouble. But not the less is it a fact that the exportation 
of sugar from Guiana and Trinidad now exceeds the 
amount exported in the time of slavery, while the export- 
ation from Jamaica is almost as nothing. 

But in Trinidad and Guiana they have no House of 
Commons, with Mr. Speaker, three readings, motions for 
adjournment, and unlimited powers of speech. In those 
colonies the governments — acting with such assistance as 
was necessary — have succeeded in getting foreign labour. 
In Jamaica they have as yet but succeeded in talking 
about it. In Guiana and Trinidad they make much 
sugar, and boast loudly of making more. In Jamaica 
they make but very little, and have not self-confidence 
enough left with them to make any boast whatsoever. 

With all the love that an Englishman should have for 
a popular parliamentary representation, I cannot think 
it adapted to a small colony, even were that colony not 
from circumstances so peculiarly ill fitted for it as is 
Jamaica. In Canada and Australia it is no doubt very 
well ; the spirit of a fresh and energetic people struggling 
on into the world's eminence will produce men fit for 
debating, men who can stand on their legs without mak- 
ing a house of legislature ridiculous. But what could 
Lords and Commons do in Malta, or in Jersey ? What 
would they do in the Scilly Islands ? What have they 
been doing in the Ionian Islands? And, alas ! what have 
they done in Jamaica ? 

Her roads are almost impassable, her bridges are broken 
down, her coffee plantations have gone back to bush, her 
sugar estates have been sold for the value of the sugar- 
boilers. Kingston as a town is the most deplorable that 
man ever visited, unless it be that Spanish Town is worse. 



120 



JAMAICA. 



And yet they have Lords and Commons with all but un- 
limited powers of making motions ! It has availed them 
nothing, and I fear will avail them nothing. 

This I know may be said, that be the Lords and Com- 
mons there for good or evil, they are to be moved neither 
by men nor gods. It is I imagine true, that no power 
known to the British empire could deprive Jamaica of 
her constitution. It has had some kind of a house of 
assembly since the time of Charles II. ; nay, I believe, 
since the days of Cromwell ; which by successive doctor- 
ing has grown to be such a parody, as it now is, on our 
home mode of doing business. How all this may now 
be altered and brought back to reason, perhaps no man 
can say. Probably it cannot be altered till some further 
smash shall come ; but it is not on that account the less 
objectionable. 

The House of Assembly and the Chamber of the 
Legislative Council are })oth situated in the same square 
with the Governor's mansion in Spanish Town. The 
desolateness of this place I have attempted to describe 
elsewhere, and yet, when I was there, Parliament was 
sitting ! What must the place be during the nine months 
when Parliament does not sit ? They are yellow build- 
ings, erected at considerable expense, and not without 
some pretence. But nevertheless, they are ugly — ugly from 
their colour, ugly from the heat, and ugly from a certain 
heaviness which seems natural to them and to the place. 

The house itself in which the forty-seven members sit 
is comfortable enough, and not badly adapted for its 
purposes. The Speaker sits at one end all in full fig, with 
a clerk at the table below; opposite to him, two-thfrds 
down the room, a low bar, about four feet high, runs 
across it. As far as this the public are always admitted ; 
and when any subject of special interest is under discus- 
sion twelve or fifteen persons may be seen there assembled. 



THE GOVERNMENT. 



121 



Then there is a 'side room opening from the house, into 
which members take their friends. Indeed it is, I believe, 
generally open to any one wearing a decent coat. There 
is the Bellamy of the establishment, in which honourable 
members take such refreshment as the warmth of the 
debate may render necessary. Their tastes seemed to me 
to be simple, and to addict themselves chiefly to rum and 
water. 

I was throwing away my cigar as I entered the precincts 
of the house. ' Oh, you can smoke/ said my friend to 
me ; 6 only, when you stand at the doorway, don't let the 
Speaker's eye catch the light ; but it won't much matter.' 
So I walked on, and stood at the side door, smoking my 
cigar indeed, but conscious that I was desecrating the place. 
: , I saw five or six coloured gentlemen in the house, and 
two negroes — sitting in the house as members. As far as 
the two latter men were concerned, I could not but be 
gratified to see them in the fair enjoyment of the objects 
of a fair ambition. Had they not by efforts of their own 
made themselves greatly superior to others of their race, 
they would not have been there. I say this, fearing that 
it may be thought that I begrudge a black man such a 
position. I begrudge the black men nothing that they 
can honestly lay hands on ; but I think that we shall benefit 
neither them nor ourselves by attempting with a false 
philanthropy to make them out to be other than they are. 

The subject under debate was a railway bill. The 
railway system is not very extended in the island ; but 
there is a railway, and the talk was of prolonging it. 
Indeed, the house I believe had on some previous occasion 
decided that it should be prolonged, and the present fight 
was as to some particular detail. What that detail was I did 
not learn, for the business being performed was a continual 
series of motions for adjournment carried on by a victorious 
minority of three. 



122 



JAMAICA. 



It was clear that the conquered majority of — say thirty 
— was very angry. For some reason, appertaining pro- 
bably to the tactics of the house, these thirty were exceed- 
ingly anxious to have some special point carried and put 
out of the way that night, but the three were inexorable. 
Two of the three spoke continually, and ended every 
speech with a motion for adjournment. 

And then there was a disagreement among the thirty. 
Some declared all this to be ' bosh,' proposed to leave the 
house without any adjournment, play whist, and let the 
three victors enjoy their barren triumph. Others, made 
of sterner stuff, would not thus give way. One after 
another they made impetuous little speeches, then two at 
a time, and at last three. They thumped the table, and 
called each other pretty names, walked about furiously, 
and devoted the three victors to the infernal gods. 

And then one of the black gentlemen arose, and made 
a calm, deliberate little oration. The words he spoke 
were about the wisest which were spoken that night, and 
yet they were not very wise. He offered to the house a 
few platitudes on the general benefit of railways, which 
would have applied to any railway under the sun, saying 
that eggs and fowls would be taken to market ; and then 
he sat down. On his behalf I must declare that there 
were no other words of such wisdom spoken that night. 
But this relief lasted only for three minutes. 

After a while two members coming to the door declared 
that it was becoming unbearable, and carried me away 
to play whist. 6 My place is close by,' said one, 6 and if 
the row becomes hot we shall hear it. It is dreadful to 
stay there with such an object, and with the certainty 
of missing one's object after all.' As I was inclined to 
agree with him, I went away an/I played whist. 

But soon a storm of voices reached our ears round the 
card-table. 6 They are hard at it now,' said one honour- 



THE GOVEEXMEXT. 



123 



able member. 6 That's So-and-So, by the screech. 5 The 
yell might have been heard at Kingston, and no doubt 
was. 

6 By heavens they are at it, 5 said another. 6 Ha, ha, 
ha ! A nice house of assembly, isn't it ?' 

6 Will they pitch into one another ?' I asked, thinking 
of scenes of which I had read of in another country ; and 
thinking also, I must confess, that an absolute bodily 
scrimmage on the floor of the house might be worth 
seeing. 

4 They don't often do that,' said my friend. 6 They 
trust chiefly to their voices ; but there's no knowing.' 

The temptation was too much for me, so I threw down 
my cards and rushed back to the Assembly. When I 
arrived the louder portion of the noise was being made 
by one gentleman who was walking round and round the 
chamber, swearing in a loud voice that he would resign 
the very moment the Speaker was seated in the chair ; 
for at that time the house was in committee. The loude: 
portion of the noise, I say, for two other honourable mem- 
bers were speaking, and the rest were discussing the matter 
in small parties. 

6 Shameful, abominable, scandalous, rascally P shouted 
the angry gentleman over and over again, as he paced 
round and round the chamber. 6 I'll not sit in such a 
house ; no man should sit in such a house. By G — , I'll 
resign as soon as I see the Speaker in that chair. Sir, 
come and have a drink of rum and water.' 

In his angry wanderings his steps had brought him to 
the door at which I was standing, and these last words 
were addressed to me. 6 Come and have a drink of rum 
and water,' and he seized me with a hospitable violence 
by the arm. I did not dare to deny so angry a legislator, 
and I drank the rum and water. Then I returned to my 
cards. 



124 JAMAICA— THE GOVERNMENT. 



It may be said that nearly the same thing does some- 
times occur in our own House of Commons — always omit- 
ting the threats of resignation and the drink. With us at 
home a small minority may impede the business of the 
house by adjournments, and members sometimes become 
loud and angry. But in Jamaica the storm raged in so 
small a teapot ! The railway extension was to be but for 
a mile or two, and I fear would hardly benefit more than 
the eggs and fowls for which the dark gentleman pleaded. 

In heading this chapter I have spoken of the govern- 
ment, and it may be objected to me that in writing it I 
have written only of the legislature, and not at all of the 
mode of governing. But in truth the mode of government 
depends entirely on the mode of legislature. 

As regards the Governor himself and his ministers, I 
do not doubt that they do their best ; but I think that 
their best might be much better if their hands were not so 
closely tied by this teapot system of Queen, Lords, and 
Commons. 



( 123 ) 



CHAPTER X. 

CUBA. 

Cuba is the largest and the most westerly of the West 
Indian islands. It is in the shape of a half-moon, and with 
one of its horns nearly lies across the month of the Gulf 
of Mexico. It belongs to the Spanish crown, of which it 
is by far the most splendid appendage. So much for facts 
— geographical and historical. 

The journey from Kingston to Cien Fuegos, of which 
I have said somewhat in my first chapter, was not com- 
pleted under better auspices than those which witnessed 
its commencement. That perfidious bark, built in the 
eclipse, was bad to the last, and my voyage took nine days 
instead of three. My humble stock of provisions had long 
been all gone, and rny patience was nearly at as low an 
ebb. Then, as a finale, the Cuban pilot who took us in 
hand as we entered the port, ran us on shore just under 
the Spanish fort, and there left us. From this position it 
was impossible to escape, though the shore lay close to us, 
inasmuch as it is an offence of the gravest nature to land 
in those ports without the ceremony of a visit from the 
medical officer ; and no medical officer would come to us 
there. And then two of our small crew had been taken 
sick, and we had before us in our mind's eye all the plea- 
sures of quarantine. 



126 



CUBA. 



A man, and especially an author, is thankful for ca- 
lamities if they be of a tragic dye. It would be as good as 
a small fortune to be left for three days without food or 
water, or to run for one's life before a black storm on un- 
known seas in a small boat. But we had no such luck as 
this. There was plenty of food, though it was not very 
palatable ; and the peril of our position cannot be insisted 
on, as we might have thrown a baby on shore from the 
vessel, let alone a biscuit. W e did what we could to get 
up a catastrophe among the sharks, by bathing off the 
ship's sides. But even this was in vain. One small shark 
we did see. But in lieu of it eating us, we ate it. In 
spite of the popular prejudice, I have to declare that it 
was delicious. 

But at last I did find myself in the hotel at Cien Fuegos. 
And here I must say a word in praise of the civility of 
the Spanish authorities of that town — and, indeed, of those 
gentlemen generally wherever I chanced to meet them. 
They welcome you with easy courtesy ; offer you coffee or 
beer ; assure you at parting that their whole house is at 
your disposal ; and then load you — at least they so loaded 
me — with cigars. 

' My friend,' said the captain of the port, holding in 
his hand a huge parcel of these articles, each about seven 
inches long — ' I wish I could do you a service. It would 
make me happy for ever if I could truly serve you.' 

6 Senor, the service you have done me is inestimable 
in allowing me to make the acquaintance of Don .' 

' But at least accept these few cigars ;' and then he 
pressed the bundle into my hand, and pressed his own 
hand over mine. ' Smoke one daily after dinner ; and 
when you procure any that are better, do a fastidious old 
smoker the great kindness to inform him where they are 
to be found.' 

This treasure to which his fancy alluded, but in the 



CUBA. 



127 



existence of which he will never believe, I have not yet 
discovered. 

Cien Fuegos is a small new town on the southern coast 
of Cuba, created by the sugar trade, and devoted, of course, 
to commerce. It is clean, prosperous, and quickly in- 
creasing. Its streets are lighted with gas, while those in 
the Havana still depend upon oil-lamps. It has its 
opera, its governor's house, its alameda, its military and 
public hospital, its market-place, and railway station ; and 
unless the engineers deceive themselves, it will in time 
have its well. It has also that institution which in the 
eyes of travellers ranks so much above all others, a good 
and clean inn. 

My first object after landing was to see a slave sugar 
estate. I had been told in Jamaica that to effect this 
required some little management ; that the owners of the 
slaves were not usually willing to allow strangers to see 
them at work ; and that the manufacture of sugar in 
Cuba was as a rule kept sacred from profane eyes. But 
I found no such difficulty. I made my request to an 
English merchant at Cien Fuegos, and he gave me a 
letter of introduction to the proprietor of an estate some 
fifteen miles from the town ; and by their joint courtesy 
I saw all that I wished. 

On this property, which consisted altogether of eighteen 
hundred acres— the greater portion of which was not yet 
under cultivation — there were six hundred acres of cane 
pieces. The average year's produce was eighteen hundred 
hogsheads, or three hogsheads to the acre. The hogshead 
was intended to represent a ton of sugar when it reached 
the market, but judging from all that I could learn, it 
usually fell short of it by more than a hundredweight. 
The value of such a hogshead at Cien Fuegos was about 
twenty-five pounds. There were one hundred and fifty 
negro men on the estate, the average cash value of each 



128 



CUBA. 



man being three hundred and fifty pounds ; most of the 
men had their wives. In stating this it must not be sup- 
posed that either I or my informant insist much on the 
validity of their marriage ceremony ; any such ceremony 
was probably of rare occurrence. During the crop time, 
at which period my visit was made, and which lasts gene- 
rally from November till May, the negroes sleep during 
six hours out of the twenty-four, have two for their meals, 
and work for sixteen ! No difference is made on Sunday. 
Their food is very plentiful, and of a good and strong de- 
scription. They are sleek and fat and large, like well-pre- 
served brewers' horses; and with reference to them, as 
also with reference to the brewers' horses, it has probably 
been ascertained what amount of work may be exacted so 
as to give the greatest profit. During the remainder of 
the year the labour of the negroes averages twelve hours 
a day, and one day of rest in the week is usually allowed 
to them. 

I was of course anxious to see what was the nature of 
the coercive measures used with them. But in this respect 
my curiosity was not indulged, I can only say that I saw 
none, and saw the mark and signs of none. No doubt the 
whip is in use, but I did not see it. The gentleman whose 
estate I visited had no notice of our coming, and there was 
no appearance of anything being hidden from us. I could 
not, however, bring myself to inquire of him as to their 
punishment. 

The slaves throughout the island are always as a rule 
baptized. Those who are employed in the town and as 
household servants appear to be educated in compliance 
with, at any rate the outward doctrines of, the Eoman 
Catholic church. But with the great mass of the negroes 
— those who work on the sugar-canes — all attention to 
religion ends with their baptism. They have the advan- 
tage, whatever it may be, of that ceremony in infancy ; and 



CUBA. 



129 



from that time forth they are treated as the beasts of the 
stall. 

From all that I could hear, as well as from what I 
could see, I have reason to think that, regarding them 
as beasts, they are well treated. Their hours of labour 
are certainly very long — so long as to appear almost 
impossible to a European workman. But under the 
system, such as it is, the men do not apparently lose their 
health, though, no doubt, they become prematurely old, 
and as a rule die early. The property is too valuable to 
be neglected or ill used. The object of course is to make 
that property pay ; and therefore a present healthy con- 
dition is cared for, but long life is not regarded. It is 
exactly the same with horses in this country. 

TThen all has been said that can be said in favour of 
the slave-owner in Cuba, it comes to this — that he treats 
his slaves as beasts of burden, and so treating them, does 
it skilfully and with prudence. The point which most 
shocks an Englishman is the absence of all religion, the 
ignoring of the black man s soul. But this, perhaps, may 
be taken as an excuse, that the white men here ignore 
their own souls also. The Roman Catholic worship seems 
to be at a lower ebb in Cuba than almost any country in 
which I have seen it. 

It is singular that no priest should even make any 
effort on the subject with regard to the negroes ; but I 
am assured that such is the fact. They do not wish to 
do so ; nor will they allow of any one asking them to 
make the experiment. One would think that had there 
been any truth or any courage in them, they would have 
declared the inutility of baptism, and have proclaimed 
that negroes have no souls. But there is no truth in 
them ; neither is there any courage. 

The works at the Cuban sugar estate were very different 
from those I had seen at J amaica. They were on a much 

K 



130 



CUBA. 



larger scale, in mueli better order, overlooked by a larger 
proportion of white men, with a greater amount of skilled 
labour. The evidences of capital were very plain in 
Cuba ; whereas, the want of it was frequently equally 
plain in our own island. 

Not that the planters in Cuba are as a rule themselves 
very rich men. The estates are deeply mortgaged to 
the different merchants at the different ports, as are those 
in Jamaica to the merchants of Kingston. These mer- 
chants in Cuba are generally Americans, Englishmen, 
Germans, Spaniards from the American Eepublics — any- 
thing but Cubans ; and the slave-owners are but the go- 
betweens who secure the profits of the slave-trade for the 
merchants. 

My friend at the estate invited us to a late breakfast 
after having shown me what I came to see. 6 You have 
taken me so unawares,' said he, fi that we cannot offer you 
much except a welcome.' Well, it was not much — for 
Cuba perhaps. A delicious soup, made partly of eggs, a 
bottle of excellent claret, a pate de foie gras, some game 
deliciously dressed, and half a dozen kinds of vegetables ; 
that was all. I had seen nothing among the slaves which 
in any way interfered with my appetite, or with the cup 
of coffee and cigar which came after the little nothings 
above mentioned. 

We then went down to the railway station. It was 
a peculiar station I was told, and the tickets could not 
be paid for till we reached Cien Fuegos. But, lo ! on 
arriving at Cien Fuegos there was nothing more to pay. 
1 It has all been done,' said some one to me. 

If one was but convinced that those sleek, fat, smiling 
bipeds were but two legged beasts of burden, and nothing 
more, all would have been well at the estate which we 
visited. 

All Cuba was of course full of the late message from 



CUBA. 



131 



the President of the United States, which at the time of 
my visit was some two months old there. The purport 
of what Mr. Buchanan said regarding Cuba may perhaps 
be expressed as follows: — ''Circumstances and destiny 
absolutely require that the United States should be the 
masters of that island. That we should take it by fili- 
bustering or violence is not in accordance with our 
national genius. It will suit our character and honesty 
much better that we should obtain it by purchase. Let 
us therefore offer a fair price for it. If a fair price be 
refused, that of course will be a casus belli. Spain will 
then have injured us, and we may declare war. 4 Under 
these circumstances we should probably obtain the place 
without purchase ; but let us hope better things.' This 
is what the President has said, either in plain words or by 
inference equally plain. 

It may easily be conceived with what feeling such an 
announcement has been received by Spain, and those who 
hold Spanish authority in Cuba. There is an outspoken 
insolence in the threat, which, by a first-class power, 
would itself have been considered a cause for war. But 
Spain is not a first-class power, and like the other weak 
ones of the earth, must either perish or live by adhering to 
and obeying those who will protect her. Though too 
ignoble to be strong, she has been too proud to be 
obedient. And as a matter of course she will go to the 
wall. 

A scrupulous man who feels that he would fain regulate 
his course in politics by the same line as that used for his 
ordinary life, cannot but feel angry at the loud tone of 
America's audacious threat. But even such a one knows 
that that threat will sooner or later be carried out* and 
that humanity will benefit by its accomplishment. Per- 
haps it may be said that scrupulous men should have but 
little dealing in state policy. 

K 2 



132 



CUBA. 



The plea under which Mr. Buchanan proposes to quarrel 
with Spain, if she will not sell that which America wishes 
to buy, is the plea under which Ahab quarrelled with 
Naboth. A man is, individually, disgusted that a Presi- 
dent of the United States should have made such an 
utterance. But looking at the question in a broader point 
of view, in one which regards future ages rather than the 
present time, one can hardly refrain from rejoicing at any 
event which will tend to bring about that which in itself is 
so desirable. 

We reprobate the name of filibuster, and have a holy 
horror of the trade. And it is perhaps fortunate that 
with us the age of individual filibustering is well-nigh 
gone by. But it may be fair for us to consider whether 
we have not in our younger days done as much in this 
line as have the Americans — whether Clive, for instance, 
was not a filibuster — or Warren Hastings. Have we not 
annexed, and maintained, and encroached ; protected, and 
assumed, and taken possession in the East — doing it all of 
course for the good of humanity ? And why should we 
begrudge the same career to America ? 

That we do begrudge it is certain. That she purchased 
California and took Texas went at first against the grain 
with us; and Englishmen, as a rule, would wish to 
maintain Cuba in the possession of Spain. But what 
Englishman who thinks about it will doubt that Cali- 
fornia and Texas have thriven since they were annexed, 
as they never could have thriven while forming part of 
the Mexican empire — or can doubt that Cuba, if delivered 
up to the States, would gain infinitely by such a change 
of masters ? 

Filibustering, called by that or some other name, is 
the destiny of a great portion of that race to which we 
Englishmen and Americans belong. It would be a bad 
profession probably for a scrupulous man. With the 



CUBA, 



133 



unscrupulous man, what stumbling-blocks there may be 
between his deeds and his conscience is for his considera- 
tion and for God's judgment. But it will hardly suit 
us as a nation to be loud against it. By what other 
process have poor and weak races been compelled to give 
way to those who have power and energy ? And who 
have displaced so many of the poor and weak, and spread 
abroad so vast an energy, such an extent of power as we 
of England ? 

The truth may perhaps be this : — that a filibuster needs 
expect no good word from his fellow-mortals till he has 
proved his claim to it by success. 

From such information as I could obtain, I am of 
opinion that the Cubans themselves would be glad enough 
to see the transfer well effected. How, indeed, can it be 
otherwise ? At present they have no national privilege 
except that of undergoing taxation. Every office is held 
by a Spaniard. Every soldier in the island — and they 
say that there are twenty-five thousand — must be a 
Spaniard. The ships of war are commanded and manned 
by Spaniards. AH that is shown before their eyes of 
brilliancy and power and high place is purely Spanish. 
No Cuban has any voice in his own country. He can 
never have the consolation of thinking that his tyrant is 
his countryman, or reflect that under altered circum- 
stances it might possibly have been his fortune to 
tyrannize. What love can he have for Spain? He 
cannot even have the poor pride of being slave to a 
great lord. He is the lacquey of a reduced gentleman, 
and lives on the vails of those who despise his master. 
Of course the transfer would be grateful to him. 

But no Cuban will himself do anything to bring it 
about. To wish is one thing ; to act is another. A man 
standing behind his counter may feel that his hand is 
restricted on every side, and his taxes alone unrestricted 



134 



CUBA. 



but lie must have other than Hispano-Creole blood in 
his veins if he do more than stand and feel. Indeed, 
wishing is too strong a word to be fairly applicable to 
his state of mind. He would be glad that Cuba should 
be American ; but he would prefer that he himself should 
lie in a dormant state while the dangerous transfer is 
going on. 

I have ventured to say that humanity would certainly 
be benefited by such a transfer. We, when we think of 
Cuba, think of it almost entirely as a slave country. 
And, indeed, in this light, and in this light only, is it 
peculiar, being the solitary land into which slaves are 
now systematically imported out of Africa. Into that 
great question of guarding the slave coast it would be 
futile here to enter ; but this I believe is acknowledged, 
that if the Cuban market be closed against the trade, the 
trade must perish of exhaustion. At present slaves are 
brought into Cuba in spite of us ; and, as we all know, 
can be brought in under the American stars and stripes. 
But no one accuses the American Government of syste- 
matically favouring an importation of Africans into their 
own States. When Cuba becomes one of them the trade 
will cease. The obstacle to that trade which is created 
by our vessels of war on the coast of Africa may, or may 
not, be worth the cost. But no man who looks into the 
subject will presume to say that we can be as efficacious 
there as the Americans would be if they were the owners 
of the present slave-market. 

I do not know whether it be sufficiently understood in 
England, that though slavery is an institution of the 
United States, the slave-trade, as commonly understood 
under that denomination, is as illegal there as in England. 
That slavery itself would be continued in Cuba under the 
Americans — continued for a while — is of course certain. 
So is it in Louisiana and the Carolinas. But the horrors 



CUBA. 



135 



of the middle passage, the kidnapping of negroes, the 
African wars which are waged for the sake of prisoners, 
would of necessity come to an end. 

But this slave-trade is as opposed to the laws of Spain 
and its colonies as it is to those of the United States or of 
Great Britain. This is true ; and were the law carried 
out in Cuba as well as it is in the United States, an 
Englishman would feel disinclined to look on with calm- 
ness at the violent dismemberment of the Spanish empire. 
But in Cuba the law is broken systematically. The 
Captain-General in Cuba will allow no African to be im- 
ported into the island — except for a consideration. It is 
said that the present Captain-General receives only a gold 
doubloon, or about three pounds twelve shillings, on every 
head of wool so brought in ; and he has therefore the 
reputation of being a very moderate man. O'Donnel 
required twice as large a bribe. Yaldez would take 
nothing, and he is spoken of as the foolish Governor. 
Even he, though he would take no bribe, was not allowed 
to throw obstacles in the way of the slave-trade. That 
such a bribe is usually demanded, and as a matter of 
course paid, is as well known — ay, much better known, 
than any other of the island port duties. The fact is so 
notorious to all men, that it is almost as absurd to insist 
on it as it would be to urge that the income of the Queen 
of England is paid from the taxes. It is known to every 
one, and among others is known to the government of 
Spain. Under these circumstances, who can feel sympathy 
with her, or wish that she should retain her colony ? 
Does she not daily show that she is unfit to hold it ? 

There must be some stage in misgovernment which 
will justify the interference of by-standing nations, in the 
name of humanity. That rule in life which forbids a 
man to come between a husband and his wife is a good 
rule. But nevertheless, who can stand by quiescent and 



•136 



CUBA. 



see a brute half murder the poor woman whom he should 
protect ? 

And in other ways, and through causes also, humanity 
would be benefited by such a transfer. We in England 
are not very fond of a republic. We would hardly ex- 
change our throne for a president's chair, or even dispense 
at present with our House of Peers or our Bench of 
Bishops. But we can see that men thrive under the stars 
and stripes ; whereas they pine beneath the red and yellow 
flag of Spain. This, it may be said, is attributable to the 
race of the men rather than to the government. But the 
race will be improved by the infusion of new blood. Let 
the world say what chance there is of such improvement 
in the Spanish government. 

The trade of the country is falling into the hands of 
foreigners — into those principally of Americans from the 
States. The Havana will soon become as much American 
as New Orleans. It requires but little of the spirit of 
prophecy to foretell that the Spanish rule will not be long 
obeyed by such people. 

On the whole I cannot see how Englishmen can refrain 
from sympathizing with the desire of the United States to 
become possessed of this fertile island. As far as we our- 
selves are concerned, it would be infinitely for our benefit. 
We can trade with the United States when we can hardly 
do so with Spain. Moreover, if Jamaica and the smaller 
British islands can ever again hold up their heads against 
Cuba as sugar-producing colonies, it will be when the 
slave-trade has been abolished. Till such time it can 
never be. 

And then where are our professions for the ameliora- 
tion, and especially for the Christianity of the human 
race? I have said what is the religious education of the 
slaves in Cuba. I may also say that in this island no 
place of Protestant worship exists, or is possible. The 



CUBA. 



137 



Roman Catholic religion is alone allowed, and that is at 
its very lowest point. 6 The old women of both sexes go 
to mass/ a Spaniard told me ; 6 and the girls when their 
clothes are new.' 

But above all things it behoves us to rid ourselves of 
the jealousy which I fear we too often feel towards Ame- 
rican pretension. 4 Jonathan is getting bumptious/ we 

are apt to say; 'he ought to have ' this and that 

other punishment, according to the taste of the offended 
Englishman. 

Jonathan is becoming bumptious, no doubt. Young 
men of genius, when they succeed in life at comparatively 
early years, are generally afflicted more or less with this 
disease. But one is not inclined to throw aside as useless, 
the intellect, energy, and genius of youth because it is 
not accompanied by modesty, grace, and self-denial. Do 
we not, in regard to all our friends, take the good that we 
find in them, aware that in the very best there will be 
some deficiency to forgive ? That young barrister who is 
so bright, so energetic, so useful, is perhaps soi-disant 
more than a little. One cannot deny it. But age will 
cure that. Have we a right to expect that he should be 
perfect ? 

And are the Americans the first bumptious people on 
record ? Has no other nation assumed itself to be in ad- 
vance of the world; to be the apostle of progress, the 
fountain of liberty, the rock-spring of manly work? If 
the Americans were not bumptious, how unlike would 
they be to the parent that bore them ! 

The world is wide enough for us and for our offspring, 
and we may be well content that we have it nearly all 
between us. Let them fulfil their destiny in the West, 
while we do so in the East. It may be that there also 
we may establish another child who in due time shall also 
run alone, shall also boast somewhat loudly of its own 



138 



CUBA. 



doings. It is a proud reflection that we alone, of all 
people, have such children ; a proud reflection, and a 
joyous one ; though the weaning of the baby will always 
be in some respects painful to the mother. 

Nowhere have I met a kinder hospitality than I did at 
Cien Fuegos, whether from Spaniards, Frenchmen, Ame- 
ricans, or Englishmen ; for at Cien Fuegos there are men 
of all these countries. But I must specify my friend Mr. 

M . Why should such a man be shut up for life at 

such an outlandish place ? Full of wit, singing an excellent 
song, telling a story better, I think, than any other man 
to wdioni I have ever listened, speaking four or five 
languages fluently, pleasant in manner, hospitable in heart, 
a thorough good fellow at all points, why should he bury 
himself at Cien Fuegos ? ' Auri sacra fames.' It is the 
presumable reason for all such burials. English reader, 
shouldst thou find thyself at Cien Fuegos in thy travels, 

it will not take thee long to discover my friend M . 

He is there known to every one. It will only concern 
thee to see that thou art worthy of his acquaintance. 

From Cien Fuegos I went to the Havana, the metro- 
polis, as all the world knows, of Cuba. Gur route lay by 
steamer to Batavano, and thence by railway. The com- 
munication round Cuba — that is from port to port — is not 
ill arranged or ill conducted. The boats are American 
built, and engineered by Englishmen or Americans. 
Breakfast and dinner are given on board, and the cost is 
included in the sum paid for the fare. The provisions 
are plentiful, and not bad, if oil can be avoided. As 
everything is done to foster Spain, Spanish wine is 
always used, and Spanish ware, and, above all things, 
Spanish oil. Now Spain does not send her best oil to 
her colonies. I heard great complaint made of the fares 
charged on board these boats. The fares when compared 
with those charged in America doubtless are high ; but I 



CUBA. 



139 



do not know that any one has a right to expect that he 
shall travel as cheaply in Cuba as in the States. 

I had heard much of the extravagant charges made for 
all k^nds of accommodation in Cuba; at hotels, in the 
shops, for travelling, for chance work, and the general 
wants of a stranger. I found these statements to be much 
exaggerated. Eailway travelling by the first class is 
about 3\d* a mile, which is about Id. a mile more than in 
England. At hotels the charge is two and a half or three 
dollars a day. The former sum is the more general. 
This includes a cup of coffee in the morning, a very 
serious meal at nine o'clock, together with fairly good 
Catalan wine, dinner at four, with another cup of coffee, 
and more wine ad libitum; bed, and attendance. Indeed, 
a man may go out of his hotel, without inconvenience, 
paying nothing beyond the regular daily charge. Extras 
are dear. I, for instance, having in my ignorance asked 
for a bottle of champagne, paid for it seventeen shillings. 
A friend dining with one also, or breakfasting, is an ex- 
pensive affair. The two together cost considerably more 
than one's own total daily payment. Thus, as one pays 
at an hotel whether one's dinner be eaten or no, it becomes 
almost an insane expense for friends at different hotels to 
invite each other. 

But let it not be supposed that I speak in praise of the 
hotels at the Havana. Far be it from me to do so. I 
only say that they are not dear. I found it impossible to 
command the luxury of a bedroom to myself. It Avas not 
the custom of the country they told me. If I chose to 
pay five dollars a day, just double the usual price, I could 
be indulged as soon — as circumstances would admit of it ; 
which was intended to signify that they would be happy 
to charge me for the second bed as soon as the time should 
come that they had no one else on whom to levy the rate. 
And the dirt of that bedroom ! 



140 



CUBA. 



I had been unable to get into either of the hotels at the 
Havana to which I had been recommended, every corner 
in each having been appropriated. In my grief at the 
dirt of my abode, and at the too near vicinity of my 
Spanish neighbour — the fellow-occupant of my chamber 
was from Spain — I complained somewhat bitterly to an 
American acquaintance, who had, as I thought, been more 
lucky in his inn. 

' One companion !' said he ; c why, I have three ; one 
walks about all night in a bedgown, a second snores, and 
the other is dying !' 

A friend of mine, an English officer, was at another 
house. He also was one of four ; and it so occurred that 
he lost thirty pounds out of his sac de nuit. On the whole 
I may consider myself to have been lucky. 

Labour generally is dear, a workman getting a dollar 
or four shillings and twopence, where in England a man 
might earn perhaps half a crown. A porter therefore for 
whom sixpence might suffice in England will require a 
shilling. A volante — I shall have a word to say about 
volantes by-and-by — for any distance within the walls 
costs eightpence. Outside the walls the price seems to be 
unconscionably higher. Omnibuses which run over two 
miles charge some fraction over sixpence for each journey. 
I find that a pair of boots cost me twenty-five shillings. 
In London they would cost about the same. Those pro- 
cured in Cuba, however, were worth nothing, which 
certainly makes a difference. Meat is eightpence the 
English pound. Bread is somewhat dearer than in 
England, but not much. 

House-rent may be taken as being nearly four times as 
high as it is in any decent but not fashionable part of 
London, and the wages of house-servants are twice as high 
as they are with us. The high prices in the Havana are 
such therefore as to affect the resident rather than the 



CUBA. 



141 



stranger. One article, however, is very costly ; but as it 
concerns a luxury not much in general use among the in- 
habitants, this is not surprising. If a man will have his 
linen washed, he will be made to pay for it. 

There is nothing attractive in the town of Havana ; 
nothing whatever to my mind, if we except the harbour. 
The streets are narrow, dirty, and foul. In this respect 
there is certainly much difference between those within 
and without the wall. The latter are wider, more airy, 
and less vile. But even in them there is nothing to jus- 
tify the praises with which the Havana is generally 
mentioned in the West Indies. It excels in population, 
size, and no doubt in wealth, any other city there ; but 
this does not imply a great eulogium. The three prin- 
cipal public buildings are the Opera House, the Cathedral, 
and the palace of the Captain-General. The former has 
been nearly knocked down by an explosion of gas, and is 
now closed. I believe it to be an admirable model for a 
second-rate house. The cathedral is as devoid of beauty, 
both externally and internally, as such an edifice can be 
made. To describe such a building would be an absurd 
waste of time and patience. We all know what is a large 
Roman Catholic church, built in the worst taste, and by a 
combination of the lowest attributes of Gothic and Latin 
architecti re. The palace, having been built for a residence, 
does not appear so utterly vile, though it is the child of 
some similar father. It occupies one side of a public 
square or plaza, and from its position has a moderately- 
imposing effect. Of pictures in the Havana there are none 
of which mention should be made. 

But the glory of the Havana is the Paseo — the glory so 
called. This is the public drive and fashionable lounge of 
the town — the Hyde Park, the Bois de Boulogne, the 
Cascine, the Corso, the Alameda. It is for their hour on 
the Paseo that the ladies dress chemselves, and the gentle- 



142 



CUBA. 



men prepare their jewelry. It consists of a road running 
outside a portion of the wall, of the extent perhaps of half a 
mile, and ornamented with seats and avenues of trees, as are 
the Boulevards at Paris. If it is to be compared with any 
other resort of the kind in the West Indies, it certainly 
must be owned there is nothing like it ; but a European 
on first seeing it cannot understand why it is so eulogized. 
Indeed, it is probable that if he first goes thither alone, as 
was the case with me, he will pass over it, seeking for 
some other Paseo, 

But then the glory of the Paseo consists in its volantes. 
As one boasts that one has swum in a gondola, so will one 
boast of having sat in a volante. It is the pride of Cuban 
girls to appear on the Paseo in these carriages on the 
afternoons of holidays and Sundays; and there is cer- 
tainly enough of the picturesque about the vehicle to make 
it worthy of some description. It is the most singular of 
carriages, and its construction is such as to give a flat con- 
tradiction to all an Englishman's preconceived notions re- 
specting the power of horses. 

The volante is made to hold two sitters, though there is 
sometimes a low middle seat which affords accommodation 
to a third lady. We will commence the description from 
behind. There are two very huge wheels, rough, strong, 
high, thick, and of considerable weight. The axles gene- 
rally are not capped, but the nave shines with coarse 
polished metal. Supported on the axle-tree, and swinging 
forward from it on springs, is the body of a cabriolet, such 
as ordinary cabriolets used to be, with the seat, however, 
somewhat lower, and with much more room for the feet. 
The back of this is open, and generally a curtain hangs 
down over the open space. A metal bar, which is polished 
so as to look like silver, runs across the foot-board and 
supports the feet. The body, it must be understood, 
swings forward from these high wheels, so that the whole 



CUBA. 



143 



of the weight, instead of being supported, hangs from it. 
Then there $re a pair of shafts, which, counting from the 
back of the carriage to the front where they touch the 
horse at the saddle, are about fourteen feet in length. 
They do not go beyond the saddle, or the tug depending 
from the saddle in which they hang. From this immense 
length it comes to pass that there is a wide interval, 
exceeding six feet, between the carriage and the horse's 
tail ; and it follows also, from the construction of the 
machine, that a large portion of the weight must rest on 
the horse's back. 

In addition to this, the unfortunate horse has ordinarily 
to bear the weight of a rider. For with a volante your 
servant rides, and does not drive you. With the fashion- 
able world on the Paseo a second horse is used — what we 
should call an outrider — and the servant sits on this. But 
as regards those which plv in the town, there is but one 
horse. How animals can work beneath such a yoke was 
to me unintelligible. 

The great point in the volante of fashion is the servant's • 
dress. He is always a negro, and generally a large negro. 
He wears a huge pair — not of boots, for they have no feet 
to them — of galligaskins I may call them, made of thick 
stiff leather, but so as to fit the leg exactly. The top of 
them comes some nine inches above the knee, so that when 
one of these men is seen seated at his ease, the point of his 
boot nearly touches his chin. They are fastened down the 
sides with metal fastenings, and at the bottom there is a 
huge spur. The usual dress of these men, over and above 
their boots, consists of white breeches, red jackets orna- 
mented with gold lace, and broad-brimmed straw hats. 
Nothing can be more awkward, and nothing more bar- 
baric than the whole affair; but nevertheless there is 
about it a barbaric splendour, which has its effect. The 
great length of the equipage, and the distance of the 



144 



CUBA. 



horse from his work, is what chiefly strikes an English- 
man. 

The carriage usually holds, when on the Paseo, two 
or three ladies. Their great object evidently has been to 
expand their dresses, so that they may group well together, 
and with a good result as regards colour. It must be con- 
fessed that in this respect they are generally successful. 
They wear no head-dress when in their carriages, and 
indeed may generally be seen out of doors with their hair 
uncovered. Though they are of Spanish descent, the 
mantilla is unknown here. Nor could I trace much simi- 
larity to Spanish manner in other particulars. The ladies 
do not walk like Spanish women — at least not like the 
women of Andalusia, with whom one would presume them 
to have had the nearest connection. The walk of the Anda- 
lusian women surpasses that of any other, while the Cuban 
lady is not graceful in her gait. Neither can they boast 
the brilliantly dangerous beauty of Seville. In Cuba they 
have good eyes, but rarely good faces. The forehead and 
the chin too generally recede, leaving the nose with a 
prominence that is not agreeable. But as my gallantry 
has not prevented me from speaking in this uncourteous 
manner of their appearance, my honesty bids me add, that 
what they lack in beauty they make up in morals, as com- 
pared with their cousins in Europe. For travelling en 
gargon, I should probably prefer the south of Spain. 
But were I doomed to look for domesticity in either 
clime — and God forbid that such a doom should be 
mine ! — I might perhaps prefer a Cuban mother for my 
children. 

But the volante is held as very precious by the Cuban 
ladies. The volante itself, I mean — the actual vehicle. 
It is not intrusted, as coaches are with us, to the dusty 
mercies of a coach-house. It is ordinarily kept in the 
hall, and you pass it by as you enter the house ; but it is 



CUBA. 



145 



by no means uncommon to see it in the dining-room. As 
the rooms are large and usually not full of furniture, it 
does not look amiss there. 

The amusements of the Cubans are not very varied, and 
are innocent in their nature ; for the gambling as carried 
on there 1 regard rather as a business than an amusement. 
They greatly love dancing, and have dances of their own 
and music of theif own, which are peculiar, and difficult to 
a stranger. Their tunes are striking, and very pretty. 
They are fond of music generally, and maintain a fairly 
good opera company at the Havana. In the plaza there— 
the square, namely, in front of the Captain-General's 
house — a military band plays from eight to nine every 
evening. The place is then thronged with people, but 
by far the majority of them are men. 

It is the custom at all the towns in Cuba for the family, 
when at home, to pass their evening seated near the large 
low open window of their drawing-rooms ; and as these 
windows almost always look into the streets, the w T hole 
internal arrangement is seen by every one who passes. 
These windows are always protected by iron bars, as 
though they were the windows of a prison ; hi other 
respects they are completely open. 

Four chairs are to be seen ranged in a row, and four 
more opposite to them, running from the window into the 
room and placed close together. Between these is gene- 
rally laid a small piece of carpet. The majority of these 
chairs are made to rock ; for the Creole lady always rocks 
herself. I have watched them going through the accus- 
tomed motion with their bodies, even when seated on 
chairs with stern immovable leers. This is the usual 

o 

evening living-place of the family ; and I never yet saw 
an occupant of one of these chairs with a book in her hand, 
or in his. I asked an Englishman, a resident in the 
Havana, whether he had ever done so. ' A book !' he 

L 



146 



CUBA. 



answered ; c why, the girls can't read, in your sense of the 
word reading.' 

The young men, and many of those who are no longer 
young, spend their evenings, and apparently a large por- 
tion of their days, in eating ices and playing billiards. 
The accommodation in the Havana for these amuse- 
ments is on a very large scale. 

The harbour at the Havana is an interesting sight. It 
is in the first place very picturesque, which to the ordinary 
visitor is the most important feature. But it is also com- 
modious, large, and safe. It is approached between two 
forts. That to the westward, which is the principal 
defence, is called the Morro. Here also stands the light- 
house. No Englishman omits to hear, as he enters the 
harbour, that these forts were taken by the English in 
Albemarle's time. Now it seems to me, they might very 
easily be taken by any one who chose to spend on them 
the necessary amount of gunpowder. But then I know 
nothing about forts. 

This special one of the Morro I did take ; not by gun- 
powder, but by stratagem. I was informed that no one 
was allowed to see it since the open defiance of the island 
contained in the last message of the United States 
President. But I was also informed — whisperingly, in 
the ear — that a request to see the lighthouse would be 
granted, and that as I was not an American, the fort 
should follow. It resulted .in a little black boy taking 
me over the whole edifice — an impudent little black boy, 
who filled his pockets with stones and pelted the sentries. 
The view of the harbour from the lighthouse is very good 
and quite worth the trouble of the visit. The fort itself 
I did not understand, but a young English officer, who 
was with me, pooh-poohed it as a thing of nothing. But 
then young English officers pooh-pooh everything. Here 
again I must add that nothing can exceed the courtesy of 



CUBA. 



147 



all Spanish officials. If they could only possess honesty 
and energy as well as courtesy ! 

By far the most interesting spot in the Havana is the 
Quay, to which the vessels are fastened end- ways, the 
bow usually lying against the quay. In other places 
the side of the vessel is, I believe, brought to the wharf. 
Here there are signs of true life. One cannot but think 
how those quays would be extended, and that life in- 
creased, if the place were in the hands of other people. 

I have said that I regarded gambling in Cuba not as 
an amusement, but an occupation. The public lotteries 
offer the daily means to every one for gratifying this 
passion. They are maintained by the government, and 
afford a profit, I am told, of something over a million dollars 
per annum. In all public places tickets are hawked about. 
One may buy a whole ticket, half, a quarter, an eighth, 
or a sixteenth. It is done without any disguise or shame, 
and the institution seemed, I must say, to be as popular 
with the Europeans living there, as with the natives. 
In the eyes of an Englishman new from Great Britain, 
with his prejudices still thick upon him, this great national 
feature loses some of its nobility and grandeur. 

This, together with the bribery, which is so universal, 
shows what is the spirit of the country. Eor a govern- 
ment supported by the profits of a gambling-hell, and for 
a Governor enriched by bribes on slaves illegally im- 
ported, what Englishman can feel sympathy ? I would 
fain hope that there is no such sympathy felt in England. 

I have been answered, when expressing indignation 
at the system, by a request that I would first look at 
home ; and have been so answered by Englishmen. £ How 
can you blame the Captain-General,' they have said, 
1 when the same thing is done by the French and English 
consuls through the islands ?' That the Trench and 
English consuls do take bribes to w r ink at the importation of 



148 



CUBA. 



slaves, I cannot and do not believe. But Caesar's wife 
should not even be suspected. 

I found it difficult to learn what is exactly the present 
population of Cuba. I believe it to be about 1,300,000, 
and of this number about 600,000 are slaves. There are 
many Chinese now in the island, employed as household 
servants, or on railways, or about the sugar-works. Many 
are also kept at work on the cane-pieces, though it seems 
that for this labour they have hardly sufficient strength. 
These unfortunate deluded creatures receive, I fear, very 
little better treatment than the slaves. 

My best wish for the island is that it may speedily be 
reckoned among the annexations of the United States. 



( 149 ) 



CHAPTER XL 

THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS. 

In the good old days, when men called things by their 
proper names, those islands which run down in a string 
from north to south, from the Virgin Islands, to the 
mouth of the Orinoco River, were called the Windward 
Islands — the Windward or Caribbean Islands. They 
were also called the Lesser Antilles. The Leeward Islands 
were, and properly speaking are, another cluster lying 
across the coast of Venezuela, of which Cura^oa is the 
chief. Oruba and Margarita also belong to this lot, among 
which, England, I believe, never owned any. * 

But now-a-days we Britishers are not content to let 
the Dutch and others keep a separate name for them- 
selves ; we have, therefore, divided the Lesser Antilles, 
of which the greater number belong to ourselves, and 
call the northern portion of these the Leeward Islands. 
Among them Antigua is the chief, and is the residence of 
a governor supreme in this division. 

After leaving St. Thomas the first island seen of any 

* The greater Antilles are Cuba, Jamaica, Hayti, and Porto Eico, 
though. I am not quite sure whether Porto Eico does not more pro- 
perly belong to the Virgin Islands. The scattered assemblage to the 
north of the greater Antilles are the Bahamas, at one of the least 
considerable of which, San Salvador, Columbus first landed. Those 
now named, I believe, comprise all the West India Islands. 



150 THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS. 



note is St. Christopher, commonly known as St. Kitts, and 
Nevis is close to it. Both these colonies are prospering 
fairly. Sugar is exported, now I am told in increasing, 
though still not in great quantities, and the appearance 
of the cultivation is good. Looking up the side of the 
hills, one sees the sugar-canes apparently in cleanly order, 
and they have an air of substantial comfort. Of course 
the times are not so bright as in the fine old days previous 
to emancipation ; but nevertheless matters have been on 
the mend, and people are again beginning to get along. 
On the journey from Nevis to Antigua, Montserrat is 
sighted, and a singular island-rock called the Redonda 
is seen very plainly. Montserrat, I am told, is not prosper- 
ing so well as St. Kitts or Nevis. 

These islands are not so beautiful, not so greenly beauti- 
ful, as are those further south to which we shall soon come. 
The mountains of Nevis are certainly fine as they are 
seen from the sea, but they are not, or do not seem to be 
covered with that delicious tropical growth which is so 
lovely in Jamaica and Trinidad, and, indeed, in many of 
the smaller islands. 

Antigua is the next, going southward. This was, and 
perhaps is, an island of some importance. It is said to 
have been the first of the West Indian colonies which 
itself advocated the abolition of slavery, and to have been 
the only one which adopted complete emancipation at 
once, without any intermediate system of apprenticeship. 
Antigua has its own bishop, whose diocese includes also 
such of the Virgin Islands as belong to us, and the adja- 
cent islands of St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat. 

Neither is Antigua remarkable for its beauty. It is 
approached, however, by an excellent and picturesque 
harbour, called English Harbour, which in former days 
was much used by the British navy ; indeed, I believe 
it was at one time the head-quart er-s of a naval station. 



THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWAED ISLANDS. 151 



Premising, in the first place, that I know very little 
about harbours, I would say that nothing could be more 
secure than that. Whether or no it may be easy for 
sailing-vessels to get in and out with certain winds, that, 
indeed, may be doubtful. 

St. John's, the capital of Antigua, is twelve miles from 
English Harbour. I was in the island only three or four 
hours, and did not visit it. I am told that it is a good 
town — or city, I should rather say, now that it has its own 
bishop. 

In all these islands they have Queen, Lords, and Com- 
mons in one shape or another. It may, however, be 
hoped, and I believe trusted, that, for the benefit of the 
communities, matters chiefly rest hi the hands of the first 
of the three powers. The other members of the legisla- 
ture, if they have in them anything of wisdom to say, 
have doubtless an opportunity of saying it — perhaps also 
an opportunity when they have nothing of wisdom. Let 
us trust, however, that such opportunities are limited. 

After leaving Antigua we come to the French island 
of Guadaloupe, and then passing Dominica — of which I 
will say a word just now — to Martinique, which is also 
French. And here we are among the rich green wild 
beauties of these thrice beautiful Caribbean islands. The 
mountain grouping of both is very fine, and the hills 
are covered up to their summits with growth of the 
greenest. At both these islands one is struck with 
the great superiority of the French West Indian towns 
to those which belong to us. That in Guadaloupe is 
called Basseterre, and the capital of Martinique is St. 
Pierre. These towns offer remarkable contrast to Pioseau 
and Port Castries, the chief towns in the adjacent English 
islands of Dominica and St. Lucia. At the French ports 
one is landed at excellently contrived little piers, with 
proper apparatus for lighting, and well-kept steps. The 



152 THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWAED ISLANDS. 



quays are shaded by trees, the streets are neat and in 
good order, and the shops show that ordinary trade is 
thriving. There are water conduits with clear streams 
through the towns, and everything is ship-shape. I must 
tell a very different tale when I come to speak of Dominica 
and St. Lucia. 

The reason for this is, I think, well given in a useful 
guide to the West Indies, published some years since, 
under the direction of the Royal Mail Steam- Packet Com- 
pany. Speaking of St. Pierre, in Martinique, the author 
says : ' The streets are neat, regular, and cleanly. The 
houses are high, and have more the air of European houses 
than those of the English colonies. Some of the streets 
have an avenue of trees, which overshadow the footpath, 
and on either side are deep gutters, down which the 
water flows. There are five booksellers' houses, and the 
fashions are well displayed in other shops. The French 
colonists, whether Creoles * or French, consider the West 
Indies as their country. They cast no wistful looks 
towards France. They marry, educate, and build in and 
for the West Indies, and for the West Indies alone. In 
our colonies it is different. They are considered more as 
temporary lodging-places, to be deserted as soon as the 
occupiers have made money enough by molasses and sugar 
to return home! 

All this is quite true. There is something very cheer- 
ing to an English heart in that sound, and reference to 
the word home — in that great disinclination to the idea of 

«*) It should be understood that a Creole is a person born in the 
West Indies, of a race not indigenous to the islands. There may be 
white Creoles, coloured Creoles, or black Creoles.^ People talk of 
Creole horses and Creole poultry : those namely which have not 
been themselves imported, but which have been bred from imported 
stock. The meaning of the word Creole is, I think, sometimes mis- 
understood. 



THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS. 153 



life-long banishment. But nevertheless, the effect as 
shown in these islands is not satisfactory to the amour 
propre of an Englishman. And it is not only in the out- 
ward appearance of things that the French islands excel 
those belonging to England which I have specially named. 
Dominica and St. Lucia export annually about 6,000 hogs- 
heads of sugar each. Martinique exports about 60,000 
hogsheads. Martinique is certainly rather larger than 
either of the other two, but size has little or nothing to do 
with it. It is anything rather than want of fitting soil 
which makes the produce of sugar so inconsiderable in 
Dominica and St. Lucia. 

These French islands were first discovered by the 
Spaniards ; but since that time they, as well as the two 
English islands above named, have passed backwards and 
forwards between the English and French, till it was 
settled in 1814 that Martinique and Gruadaloupe should 
belong to France, and Dominica and St. Lucia, with some 
others, to England. It certainly seems that France knew 
how to take care of herself in the arrangement. 

There is another little island belonging to France, at 
the back of Gruadaloupe to the westward, called Marie- 
Galante ; but I believe it is but of little value. 

To my mind, Dominica, as seen from the sea, is by far 
the most picturesque of all these islands. Indeed, it would 
be difficult to beat it either in colour or grouping. It 
fills one with an ardent desire to be off and rambling 
among those green mountains — as if one could ramble 
through such wild, bush country, or ramble at all with the 
thermometer at 85. But when one has only to think of 
such things without any idea of doing them, neither the 
bushes nor the thermometer are considered. 

One is landed at Dominica on a beach. If the water 
be quiet, one gets out dry-shod by means of a strong 
jump ; if the surf be high, one wades through it ; if it be 



154 THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS. 



very high, one is of course upset. The same things 
happen at Jacmel, in Hayti ; but then Englishmen look 
on the Haytians as an uncivilized, barbarous race. Seeing 
that Dominica lies just between Martinique and Guada- 
loupe, the difference between the English beach and serf 
and the French piers is the more remarkable. 

And then, the perils of the surf being passed, one walks 
into the town of Eoseau. It is impossible to conceive a 
more distressing sight. Every house is in a state of deca- 
dence. There are no shops that can properly be so 
called ; the people wander about chattering, idle and list- 
less ; the streets are covered with thick, rank grass ; there 
is no sign either of money made or of money making. 
Everything seems to speak of desolation, apathy, and ruin. 
There is nothing, even in Jamaica, so sad to look at as 
the town of Eoseau. 

The greater part of the population are French in man- 
ner, religion, and language, and one would be so glad to 
attribute to that fact this wretched look of apathetic 
poverty — if it were only possible. But Ave cannot do 
that after visiting Martinique and Guadaloupe. It might 
be said that a French people will not thrive under British 
rule. But if so, what of Trinidad ? This look of misery 
has been attributed to a great fire which occurred some 
eighty years since ; but when due industry has been at 
work, great fires have usually produced improved towns. 
Now eighty years have afforded ample time for such im- 
provement if it were forthcoming. Alas ! it would seem 
that it is not forthcoming. 

It must, however, be stated in fairness that Dominica 5 
produces more coffee than sugar, and that the coffee estates 
have latterly been the most thriving. Singularly enough, 
her best customer has been the neighbouring French 
island of Martinique, in which some disease has latterly 
attacked the coffee-plants. 



THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWAED ISLANDS. 155 



We then reach St. Lucia, which is alsc very lovely as 
seen from the sea. This too is an island French in its 
language, manners, and religion ; perhaps more entirely 
so than any other of the islands belonging to ourselves. 
The laws even are still French, and the people are, I 
believe, blessed with no Lords and Commons. If I 
understand the matter rightly, St. Lucia is held as a 
colony or possession conquered from the French, and is 
governed, therefore, by a quasi-military governor, with the 
aid of a council. It is, however, in some measure depen- 
dent on the Governor of Barbados, who is again one of 
your supreme governors. There has, I believe, been some 
recent change which I do not pretend to understand. If 
these changes be not completed, and if it would not be 
presumptuous in me to offer a word of advice, I would 
say that in the present state of the island, with a Negro- 
Gallic population who do little or nothing, it might be as 
well to have as much as possible of the Queen, and as 
little as possible of the Lords and Commons. 

To the outward physical eye St. Lucia is not so triste 
as Dominica. There is good landing there, and the little 
town of Castries, though anything but prosperous in 
itself, is prosperous in appearance as compared with 
Roseau. 

St. Lucia is peculiarly celebrated for its snakes. One 
cannot walk ten yards off the road — so one is told — with- 
out being bitten. And if one be bitten, death is certain — 
except by the interposition of a single individual of the 
island, who will cure the sufferer for a consideration. 
Such, at least, is the report made on this matter. The 
first question one should ask on going there is as to the 
whereabouts and usual terms of that worthy and useful 
practitioner. There is, I believe, a great deal that is re- 
markable to attract the visitor among the mountains and 
valleys of St, Lucia. 



156 THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWAED ISLANDS. 



And then in the usual course, running down the island, 
one goes to that British advanced post, Barbados — Bar- 
bados, that lies out to windward, guarding the other islands 
as it were! Barbados, that is and ever was entirely 
British ! Barbados, that makes money, and is in all respects 
so respectable a little island ! King George need not 
have feared at all ; nor yet need Queen Victoria. If any- 
thing goes wrong in England — Napoleon coming here, 
not to kiss Her Majesty this time, but to make himself less 
agreeable — let Her Majesty go to Barbados, and she will 
be safe ! I have said that Jamaica never boasts, and have 
on that account complained of her. Let such complaint 
be far from me when I speak of Barbados. But shall I 
not write a distinct chapter as to this most respectable 
little island — an island that pays its way ? 

St. Vincent is the next in our course, and this, too, is 
green and pretty, and tempting to look at. Here also 
the French have been in possession, but comparatively for 
a short time. In settling this island, the chief difficulty 
the English had was with the old native Indians, who more 
than once endeavoured to turn out their British masters. 
The contest ended in their being effectually turned out by 
those British masters, who expelled them all bodily to the 
island of Ruatan, in the Bay of Honduras ; where their 
descendants are now giving the Anglo-American diploma- 
tists so much trouble in deciding whose subjects they 
truly are. May we not say that, having got rid of them 
out of St. Vincent, we can afford to get rid of them alto- 
gether ? 

Kingston is the capital here. It looks much better than 
either Roseau or Castries, though by no means equal to 
Basseterre or St. Pierre. 

This island is said to be healthy, having in this respect 
a much better reputation than its neighbour St. Lucia, and 
as far as I could learn, it is progressing — progressing 



THE PASSAGE OF THE WIKDWAED ISLANDS. 157 



slowly, but progressing — in spite even of the burden of 
Queens, Lords, and Commons. The Lords and Commons 
are no doubt considerably modified by official influence. 

And then the traveller runs down the Grenadines, a 
pretty cluster of islands lying between St. Vincent and 
Grenada, of which Becquia and Cariacou are the chief. 
They have no direct connection with the mail steamers, 
but are, I believe, under the Governor of Barbados. They 
are very pretty, though not, as a rule, very productive. 
Of one of them I was told that the population were all 
females. What a Paradise of Houris, if it were but possi- 
ble to find a good Mahommedan in these degenerate days ! 

Grenada will be the last upon the list; for I did not 
visit or even see Tobago, and of Trinidad I have ventured 
to write a separate chapter, in spite of the shortness of my 
visit. Grenada is also very lovely, and is, I think, the 
head-quarters of the world for fruit. The finest mangoes 
I ever ate I found there ; and I think the finest oranges 
and pine-apples. 

The town of St. Georges, the capital, must at one 
time have been a place of considerable importance, and 
even now it has a very different appearance from some of 
those that I have just mentioned. It is more like a goodly 
English town than any other that I saw in any of the smaller 
British islands. It is well built, though built up and 
down steep hills, and contains large and comfortable 
houses. The market-place also looks like a market-place ; 
and there are shops in it, in which trade is apparently 
carried on and money made. 

Indeed, Grenada was once a prince among these smaller 
islands, having other islands under it, with a Governor 
supreme, instead of tributary. It was fertile also, and 
productive, — in every way of importance. 

But now here, as in so many other spots among the 
West Indies, we are driven to exclaim, Ichabod! The 



158 THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS. 



glory of our Grenada has departed, as lias the glory of its 
great namesake in the old world. The houses, though so 
goodly, are but as so many Alhambras, whose tenants now 
are by no means great in the world's esteem. 

All the hotels in the West Indies are, as I have said, or 
shall say in some other place, kept by ladies of colour ; in 
the most part by ladies who are no longer very young. 
They are generally called familiarly by their double name. 
Betsy Austen, for instance, or Caroline Lee. I went to 
the house of some such lady in St. George's, and she 
told me a woful tale of her miseries. She was Kitty some- 
thing, I think — soon, apparently, to become Kitty of an- 
other world. 6 An hotel/ she said. 6 No ; she kept no 
hotel now-a-days — what use was there for an hotel in St. 
Georges ? She kept a lodging-house ; though, for the 
matter of that, no lodgers ever came nigh her. That little 
granddaughter of hers sometimes sold a bottle of ginger 
beer ; that was all.' It must be hard for living eyes to see 
one's trade die off in that way. 

There is a feminine accomplishment so much in vogue 
among the ladies of the West Indies, one practised there 
with a success so specially brilliant, as to make it deserving 
of special notice. This art is one not wholly confined to 
ladies, although, as in the case with music, dancing, and 
cookery, it is to be looked for chiefly among the female 
sex. Men, indeed, do practise it in England, the West 
Indies, and elsewhere ; and as Thalberg and Soyer are 
greatest among pianists and cooks, so perhaps are the 
greatest adepts in this art to be found among the male 
practitioners ; — elsewhere, that is, than in the West In- 
dies. There are to be found ladies never equalled in this 
art by any effort of manhood. I speak of the science of 
flirting. 

And be it understood that here among these happy 
islands no idea of impropriety — perhaps remembering 



THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWARD ISLAXDS. 159 



some of our starched people at home, I should say of crimi- 
nality — is attached to the pursuit. Young ladies flirt, as 
they dance and play, or eat and drink, quite as a matter 
of course. There is no undutiful, unfilial idea of waiting 
till mamma's back be turned ; no uncomfortable fear of 
papa ; no longing for secluded corners, so that the world 
should not see. The doing of anything that one is ashamed 
of is bad. But as regards flirting, there is no such doing 
in the West Indies. Girls flirt not only with the utmost 
skill, but with the utmost innocence also. Fanny Grey, 
with her twelve admirers, required no retired corners, no 
place apart from father, mother, brothers, or sisters. She 
would perform with all the world around her as some 
other girl would sing, conscious that in singing she would 
neither disgrace herself nor her masters. 

It may be said that the practice of this accomplishment 
will often interfere with the course of true love. Perhaps so, 
but I doubt whether it does not as often assist it. It 
seemed to me that young ladies do not hang on hand in 
the West Indies. Marriages are made up there with 
apparently great satisfaction on both sides ; and then the 
flirting is laid aside — put by, at any rate, till the days of 
widowhood, should such evil days come. The flirting is 
as innocent as it is open, and is confined to ladies without 
husbands. 

It is confined to ladies without husbands, but the vic- 
tims are not bachelors alone. Xo position, or age, or 
state of health secures a man from being drawn, now into 
one and now into another Circean circle, in which he is 
whirled about, sometimes in a most ridiculous manner, 
jostled amongst a dozen neighbours, left without power to 
get out or to plunge further in, pulled back by a skirt at 
any attempt to escape, repulsed in the front at every 
struggle made to fight his way through. 

Boiling about in these Charybdis pools are, perhaps, 
oftenest to be seen certain wearers of red coats ; wretches' 



160 THE PASSAGE OF THE WINDWAKD ISLANDS. 



girt with tight sashes, and with gilding on their legs and 
backs. To and fro they go, bumping against each other 
without serious injury, but apparently in great discomfort 
And then there are black-coated strugglers, with white 
neck-ties, very valiant in their first efforts, but often to be 
seen in deep grief, with heads thoroughly submersed. 
And you may see gray-haired sufferers with short necks, 
making little useless puffs, puffs which would be so im- 
potent were not Circe merciful to those short-necked 
gray-haired sufferers. 

If there were, as perhaps there should be, a college in 
the West Indies, with fellowships and professorships, 
established with the view of rewarding proficiency in this 
science, Fanny Grey should certainly be elected warden, 
or principal, or provost of that college. Her wondrous skill 
deserves more than mere praise, more than such slight 
glory as my ephemeral pages can give her. Pretty , laughing, 
brilliant, clever Fanny Grey ? Whose cheeks ever were so 
pink, whose teeth so white, whose eyes so bright, whose 
curling locks so raven black ! And then who ever smiled 
as she smiled ? or fr owned as she can frown ? Sharply go 
those brows together, and down beneath the gurgling pool 
sinks the head of the red-coated wretch, while with mo- 
mentary joy up pops the head of another, who is received 
with a momentary smile. 

Yes ; oh my reader ! it is too true, I also have been in 
that pool, making, indeed, no wilful struggles, attempting 
no Leander feat of swimming, sucked in as my steps un- 
consciously strayed too near the dangerous margin ; sucked 
in and then buffeted about, not altogether unmercifully when 
my inaptitude for such struggling was discovered Yes ; 
I have found myself choking in those Charybdis waters, 
— have glanced into the Circe cave. I have been seen in 
my insane struggles. But what shame of that ? All around 
me, from the old patriarch dean of the island to the last 
subaltern fresh from Chatham, were there as well as I. 



( 1G1 ) 



CHAPTER XII. 

BRITISH GUIANA. 

When I settle out of England, and take to the colonies 
for good and all, British Guiana shall be the land of my 
adoption. If I call it Demerara perhaps I shall be better 
understood. At home there are prejudices against it I 
know. They say that it is a low, swampy, muddy strip of 
alluvial soil, infested with rattlesnakes, gallinippers, and 
musquitoes as big as turkey-cocks ; that yellow fever rages 
there perennially; that the heat is unendurable ; that 
society there is as stagnant as its waters ; that men always 
die as soon as they reach it ; and when they live are such 
wretched creatures that life is a misfortune. Calumny 
reports it to have been ruined by the abolition of slavery ; 
milk of human kindness would forbid the further exporta- 
tion of Europeans to this white man's grave ; and philan- 
thropy, for the good of mankind, would wish to have it 
drowned beneath its own rivers. There never was a land so 
ill spoken of — and never one that deserved it so little. 
All the above calumnies I contradict; and as I lived 
there for a fortnight — would it could have been a month ! 
—I expect to be believed. 

If there were but a snug secretaryship vacant there — 
and these things in Demerara are very snug — how I 
would invoke the goddess of patronage ; how I would 
nibble round the officials of the Colonial Office : how I 

M 



162 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



would stir up my friend's friends to write little notes to 
their friends ! For Demerara is the Elysium of the tropics 
— the West Indian happy valley of Easselas — the one true 
and actual Utopia of the Caribbean Seas — the Transatlantic 
Eden. 

The men in Demerara are never angry, and the women 
are never cross. Life flows along on a perpetual stream 
of love, smiles, champagne, and small talk. Everybody 
has enough of everything. The only persons who do not 
thrive are the doctors ; and for them, as the country 
affords them so little to do, the local government no 
doubt provides liberal pensions. 

The form, of government is a mild despotism, tempered 
by sugar. The Governor is the father of his people, and 
the Governor's wife the mother. The colony forms itself 
into a large family, which gathers itself together peace- 
ably under parental wings. They have no noisy ses- 
sions of Parliament as in Jamaica, no money squabbles as 
in Barbados. A clean bill of health, a surplus in the 
colonial treasury, a rich soil, a thriving trade, and a happy 
people — these are the blessings which attend the fortunate 
man who has cast his lot on this prosperous shore. Such 
is Demerara as it is made to appear to a stranger. 

That custom which prevails there, of sending to each 
new comer a deputation with invitations to dinner for 
the period of his sojourn, is an excellent institution. It 
saves a deal of trouble in letters of introduction, econo- 
mizes one's time, and puts one at once on the most- 
favoured-nation footing. Some may fancy that they could 
do better as to the bestowal of their evenings by indivi- 
dual diplomacy; but the matter is so well arranged in 
Demerara that such people would certainly find themselves 
in the wrong. 

If there be a deficiency in Georgetown — it is hardly 
necessary to explain that Georgetown is the capital of the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



163 



province of Demerara, and that Demerara is the centre 
province in the colony of British Guiana ; or that there 
are three provinces, Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo, so 
called from the names of the three great rivers of the 
country — But if there be a deficiency in Georgetown, it is 
in respect to cabs. The town is extensive, as will by-and- 
by be explained ; and though I would not so far militate 
against the feelings of the people as to say that the weather 
is ever hot — I should be ungrateful as well as incredulous 
were I to do so — nevertheless, about noonday one's inclina- 
tion for walking becomes subdued. Cabs would certainly 
be an addition to the luxuries of the place. But even 
these are not so essential as might at the first sight appear, 
for an invitation to dinner always includes an offer of the 
host's carriage. Without a carriage no one dreams of 
dragging on existence in British Guiana. In England 
one would as soon think of living in a house without a 
fireplace, or sleeping in a bed without a blanket. 

For those who wander abroad in quest of mountain 
scenery it must be admitted that this colony has not much 
attraction. The country certainly is flat. By this I mean 
to intimate, that go where you will, travel thereabouts as 
far as you may, the eye meets no rising ground. Every- 
thing stands on the same level. But then, what is the 
use of mountains ? You can grow no sugar on them, even 
with ever so many Coolies. They are big, brown, value- 
less things, cumbering the face of the creation ; very well 
for autumn idlers when they get to Switzerland, but utterly 
useless in a colony which has to count its prosperity by 
the number of its hogsheads. Jamaica has mountains, and 
look at Jamaica ! 

Yes ; Demerara is flat ; and Berbice is flat ; and so is 
Essequibo. The whole of this land is formed by the mud 
which has been brought down by these great rivers and 
by others. The Corentyne is the most easterly, separating 

M 2 



364 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



our colony from Dutch Guiana, or Surinam. Then comes 
the Berbice. The next, counting only the larger rivers, 
is the Demerara. Then, more to the west, the Essequibo, 
and running into that the Mazarony and the Cuyuni ; 
and then, north-west along the coast, the Pomeroon ; and 
lastly of our own rivers, the Guiana, though I doubt 
whether for absolute purposes of colonization we have ever 
gone so far as this. And beyond that are rolled in slow 
but turbid volume the huge waters of the Orinoco. On 
its shores we make no claim. Though the delta of the 
Orinoco is still called Guiana, it belongs to the republic of 
Venezuela, 

These are our boundaries along the South American 
shore, which hereabouts, as all men know, looks northward, 
with an easterly slant towards the Atlantic. Between us 
and our Dutch friends on the right hand the limits are 
clear enough. On the left hand, matters are not quite so 
clear with the Venezuelians. But to the rear ! To the 
rear there is an eternity of sugar capability in mud run- 
ning back to unknown mountains, the wildernesses of 
Brazil, the river Negro, and the tributaries of the Amazon 
— an eternity of sugar capability, to which England's 
colony can lay claim if only she could manage so much 
as the surveying of it. 6 Sugar !' said an enterprising 
Demerara planter to me. 6 Are you talking of sugar ? 
Give me my heart's desire in Coolies, and I will make you 
a million of hogsheads of sugar without stirring from the 
colony !' Now, the world's supply, some twelve years 
ago, was about a million hogsheads. It has since increased 
maybe by a tenth. What a land, then, is this of British 
Guiana, flowing with milk and honey — with sugar and 
rum ! A million hogsheads can be made there, if we only 
had the Coolies. I state this on the credit of my excellent 
enterprising friend. But then the Coolies ! 

Guiana is an enormous extent of flat mud, the alluvial 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



165 



deposit of those * mighty rivers which for so many years 
have been scraping together earth in those wild unknown 
upland countries, and bringing it down conveniently to 
the sea-board, so that the world might have sugar to its 
tea. I really think my friend was right. There is no 
limit to the fertility and extent of this region. The only 
limit is in labour. The present culture only skirts the 
sea-board and the riversides. You will hardly find an 
estate — I do not think that you can find one— that has 
not a water frontage. This land formerly belonged to the 
Dutch, and by them was divided out into portions which 
on a map have about them a Euclidical appearance. Let 
A B C D be a right-angled parallelogram, of which the 
sides A B and C D are three times the length of the other 
sides A C and B D. 'Tis thus you would describe a 
Demerara property, and the Q. E. D. would have reference 
to the relative quantities of sugar, molasses, and rum pro- 
ducible th er efr o m . 

But these strips of land, though they are thus marked 
out on the maps with four exact lines, are presumed to 
run back to any extent that the owner may choose to 
occupy. He starts from the water, and is bounded on 
each side ; but backwards ! Backwards he may cultivate 
canes up to the very Andes, if only he could get Coolies. 
Oh, ye soft-hearted, philanthropic gentry of the Anti- 
Slavery Society, only think of that ; a million hogsheads 
of sugar — and you like cheap sugar yourselves — if you 
will only be quiet, or talk on subjects that you under- 
stand ! 

The whole of this extent of mud, beyond the present 
very limited sugar-growing limits, is covered by timber. 
One is apt to think of an American forest as being as 
magnificent in its individual trees as it is huge in its 
extent of surface. But 1 doubt much whether this is 
generally the case. There are forest giants no doubt ; 



166 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



but indigenous primeval wood is, I take it, for the most 
part a disagreeable, scrubby, bushy, sloppy, unequal, in- 
convenient sort of affair, to walk through which a man 
should be either an alligator or a monkey, and to make 
much way he should have a touch of both. There be no 
forest glades there in which uncivilized Indian lovers walk 
at ease, with their arms round each other's naked waists ; 
no soft grass beneath the well-trimmed trunk on which to 
lie and meditate poetical. But musquitoes abound there ; 
and grass flies, which locate themselves beneath the toe- 
nails ; and marabunters, a villanous species of wasp ; and 
gallinippers, the grandfathers of musquitoes ; and from 
thence up to the xagua and the boa constrictor all nature 
is against a cool comfortable ramble in the woods. 

But I must say a word about Georgetown, and a word 
also about New Amsterdam, before I describe the pecu- 
liarities of a sugar estate in Guiana, A traveller's first 
thought is about his hotel ; and I must confess, much as I 
love Georgetown — and I do love Georgetown — that I 
ought to have coupled the hotel with the cabs, and com- 
plained of a joint deficiency. The Clarendon — the name 
at any rate is good— is a poor affair ; but poor as it is, it 
is the best. 

It is a rickety, ruined, tumble-down, wooden house, into 
which at first one absolutely dreads to enter, lest the steps 
should fail and let one through into unutterable abysses 
below. All the houses in Georgetown are made of wood, 
and therefore require a good deal of repair and paint. 
And all the houses seem to receive this care except the 
hotel. Ah, Mrs. Lenny, Mrs. Lenny ! before long you 
and your guests will fall prostrate, and be found buried 
beneath a pile of dust and a colony of cockroaches ! 

And yet it goes against my heart to abuse the inn, for 
the people were so very civil. I shall never forget that 
big black chambermaid ; how she used to curtsy to me when 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



167 



she came into my room in the morning with a huge tub of 
water on her head ! That such a weight should be put 
on her poor black skull — a weight which I could not lift 
— used to rend my heart with anguish. But that, so 
weighted, she should think that manners demanded a 
curtsy ! Poor, courteous, overburdened maiden ! 

' Don't, Sally ; don't. . Don't curtsy,' I would cry. 
6 Yes, massa,' she would reply, and curtsy again, oh, so 
painfully ! The tub of water was of such vast propor- 
tions ! It was big enough — big enough for me to wash in ! 

This house, as I have said, was all in ruins, and among 
other ruined things was my bedroom-door lock. The door 
could not be closed within, except by the use of a bolt ; 
and without the bolt would swing wide open to the winds, 
exposing my arrangements to the public, and disturbing 
the neighbourhood by its jarring. In spite of the incon- 
venient difficulty of ingress I was forced to bolt it. 

At six every morning came Sally with the tub, knock- 
ing gently at the door — knocking gently at the door with 
that ponderous tub upon her skull ! What could a man 
do when so appealed to but rush quickly from beneath his 
musquito curtains to her rescue ? So it was always with 
me. But having loosed the bolt, time did not suffice to 
enable me to take my position again beneath the curtain. 
A jump into bed I might have managed — but then, the 
musquito curtain ! So, under those circumstances, finding 
myself at the door in my deshabille, I could only open it, 
and then stand sheltered behind it, as behind a bulwark, 
while Sally deposited her burden. 

But, no. She curtsied, first at the bed ; and seeing 
that I was not there, turned her head and tub slowly round 
the room, till she perceived my whereabouts, Then gently, 
but firmly, drawing away the door till I stood before her 
plainly discovered in my night-dress, she curtsied again. 
She knew better than to enter a room without due saluta- 



168 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



tion to the guest— even with a tub of water on her head. 
Poor Sally ! Was I not dressed from my chin downwards, 
and was not that enough for her ? 6 Honi soit qui mal y 
pense.' 

After that, how can I say aught against the hotel? 
And when I complained loudly of the holes in the curtain, 
the musquitoes having driven me to very madness, did not 
they set to work, Sunday as it was, and make me a new cur- 
tain ? Certainly without avail — for they so hung it that 
the musquitoes entered worse than ever. But the inten- 
tion was no less good. 

And that waiter, David; was he not for good-nature 
the pink of waiters ? fi David, this house will tumble 
down! I know it will — before I leave it. The stairs 
shook terribly as I came up.' c Oh no, massa,' and David 
laughed benignly. 'It no tumble down last week, and 
derefore it no tumble down next.' It did last my time, 
and therefore I will say no more. 

Georgetown to my eyes is a prepossessing city, fiat as 
the country round it is, and deficient as it is — as are all 
the West Indies — in anything like architectural preten- 
sion. The streets are wide and airy. The houses, all 
built of wood, stand separately, each a little off the road ; 
and though much has not been done in the way of their 
gardens — lor till the great coming influx of Coolies all 
labour is engaged in making sugar — yet there is generally 
something green attached to each of them. Down the 
centre of every street runs a wide dyke. Of these dykes 
I must say something further when I come to speak again 
of the sugar doings ; for their importance in these pro- 
vinces cannot well be overrated. 

The houses themselves are generally without a hall. 
By that I mean that you walk directly into some sitting- 
room. This, indeed, is general through the West Indies ; 
and now that I bethink me of the fact, I may mention 



BRITISH GUIANA. 169 

that a friend of mine in Jamaica lias no door whatsoever 
to his house. All ingress and egress is by the windows. 
My bedroom had no door, only a window that opened. 
The sitting-rooms in Georgetown open through to each 
other, so that the wind, let it come which way it will, 
may blow through the whole house. For though it is 
never absolutely hot in Guiana — as I have before men- 
tioned — nevertheless, a current of air is comfortable. One 
soon learns to know the difference of windward and lee- 
ward when living in British Guiana. 

The houses are generally of three stories ; but the two 
upper only are used by the family. Outer steps lead up 
from the little front garden, generally into a verandah, 
and in this verandah a great portion of their life is led. 
It is cooler than the inner rooms. Not that I mean to say 
that any rooms in Demerara are ever hot. 

We all know the fine burst with which Scott opens a 
certain canto in one of his poems : 

Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, 
"Who never to himself hath said, 
This is my own, my native land ? 

If such there breathe, go, mark him well. 

At any rate, there breathes no such man in this pleasant 
colony. A people so happily satisfied with their own 
position I never saw elsewhere, — except at Barbados. And 
how could they fail to be satisfied, looking at their advan- 
tages ? A million hogsheads of sugar to be made when 
the Coolies come ! 

They do not, the most of them, appeal to the land as 
being that of their nativity, but they love it no less as 
that of their adoption. 6 Look at me,' says one ; 6 I have 
been thirty years without leaving it, and have never had 
a headache. 5 I look and see a remarkably hale man, of 
forty I should say* but he says fifty. ' That's nothing/ 



170 BEITISH GUIANA. 

says another, who certainly may be somewhat stricken in 
years : 6 1 have been here five-and-fifty years, and was 
never ill but once, when I was foolish enough to go to 
England. Ugh ! I shall never forget it. Why, sir, 
there was frost in October !' ' Yes,' I said, ' and snow in 
May sometimes. It is not all sunshine with us, whatever 
it may be with you.' 

4 Not that we have too much sunshine/ interposed a 
lady. 6 You don't think we have, do you ?' 

6 Not in the least. Who could ask more, madam, than 
to bask in such sunshine as yours from year's end to year's 
end?' 

5 And is commerce tolerably flourishing ?' I asked of a 
gentleman in trade. 

' Flourishing, sir ! If you want to make money, here's 
your ground. Why, sir, here, in this wretched little 
street, there has been more money turned in the last ten 
years — than — than — ' And he rummaged among the 
half-crowns in his breeches-pocket for a simile, as though 
not a few of the profits spoken of had found their way 
thither. 

6 Do you ever find it dull here ?' I asked of a lady — 
perhaps not with very good taste — for we Englishmen 
have sometimes an idea that there is perhaps a little same- 
ness about life in a small colony. 

6 Dull ! no. What should make us dull ? We have 
a great deal more to amuse us than most of you have at 
home.' This perhaps might be true of many of us. 

* We have dances, and dinner-parties, and private the- 
atricals. And then Mrs. !' Now Mrs. was 

the Governor's wife, and all eulogiums on society in 
Georgetown always ended with a eulogium upon her. 

I went over the hospital with the doctor there; for 
even in Demerara they require a hospital — for the negroes. 

* And what is the prevailing disease of the colony ?' I 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



171 



asked him. 6 Dropsy with the black men/ he answered ; 
1 and brandy with the white.' 

6 You don't think much of yellow fever ?' I asked him. 

6 No ; very little. It comes once in six or seven years ; 
and like influenza or cholera at home, it requires its vic- 
tims. What is that to consumption, whose visits with 
you are constant, who daily demands its hecatombs ? We 
don't like yellow fever, certainly ; but yellow fever is not 
half so bad a fellow as the brandy bottle/ 

Should this meet the eye of any reader in this colony 
who needs medical advice, he may thus get it, of a very 
good quality, and without fee. On the subject of brandy 
I say nothing myself, seeing how wrong it is to kiss and 
tell. 

Excepting as regards yellow fever, I do not imagine 
that Demerara is peculiarly unhealthy. And as regards 
yellow fever, I am inclined to think that his Satanic 
majesty has in this instance been painted too black. 
There are many at home — in England — who believe that 
yellow fever rages every year in some of these colonies, 
and that half the white population of the town is swept 
off by it every August. As far as I can learn it is hardly 
more fatal at one time of the year than at another. It- 
returns at intervals, but by no means regularly or annually. 
Sometimes it will hang on for sixteen or eighteen months 
at a time, and then it will disappear for five or six years. 
Those seem to be most subject to it who have been out in 
the West Indies for a year or so : after that, persons are 
not so liable to it. Sailors, and men whose work keeps 
them about the sea-board and wharves, seem to be in the 
greatest danger. White soldiers also, when quartered in 
unhealthy places, have suffered greatly. They who are 
thoroughly acclimatized are seldom attacked ; and there 
seems to be an idea that the white Creoles are nearly safe. 
I believe that there are instances in which coloured people 



172 BRITISH GUIANA. 

and even negroes have been attacked by yellow fever. 
But such cases are very rare. Cholera is the negroes' 
scourge. 

Nor do I think that this fever rages more furiously in 
Demerara than among the islands. It has been very bad 
in its bad times at Kingston Jamaica, at Trinidad, at 
Barbados, among the shipping at St. Thomas, and no- 
where worse than at the Havana. The true secret of its 
fatality I take to be this : — that the medical world has not 
yet settled what is the proper mode of medical treatment. 
There are, I believe, still two systems, each directly oppo- 
site to the other ; but in the West Indies they call them 
the French system and the English. In a few years, no 
doubt, the matter will be better understood. 

From Georgetown Demerara, to New Amsterdam 
Berbice, men travel either by steamer along the coast, or 
by a mail phaeton. The former goes once a week to 
Berbice and back, and the latter three times. I went by 
the mail phaeton and returned by the steamer. And here, 
considering the prosperity of the colony, the well-being 
and comfort of all men and women in it, the go-ahead 
principles of the place, and the coming million hogsheads 
of sugar — the millennium of a West Indian colony — con- 
sidering all these great existing characteristics of Guiana, 
I must say that I think the Governor ought to look to 
the mail phaeton. It was a woful affair, crumbling to 
pieces along the road in the saddest manner ; very heart- 
rending to the poor fellow who had to drive it, and body- 
rending to some of the five passengers who were tossed to 
and fro as every fresh fragment deserted the parent vehicle 
with a jerk. And then, when we had to send the axle to 
be mended, that staying in the road for two hours and a 
half among the musquitoes ! Ohe ! ohe ! Ugh ! ugh ! 

It grieves me to mention this, seeing that rose colour 
was so clearly the prevailing tint in all matters belonging 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



173 



to Guiana, And I would have forgiven it had the 
phaeton simply broken down on the road. All sublunar 
phaetons are subject to such accidents. Why else should 
they have been named after him of the heavens who first 
suffered from such mishaps ? But this phaeton had broken 
down before it commenced its journey. It started on a 
system of ropes, bandages, and patches which were dis- 
graceful to such a colony and such a Governor ; and I 
should intromit a clear duty, were I to allow it to escape 
the gibbet. 

But we did reach isew Amsterdam not more than 
five hours after time. I have but very little to say of the 
road, except this ; that there is ample scope for sugar and 
ample room for Coolies. 

Every now and then we came upon negro villages. 
All villages in this country must be negro villages, one 
would say, except the few poor remaining huts of the 
Indians, which are not encountered on the white man's 
path. True ; but by a negro village I mean a site which 
is now the freehold possession of negroes, having been 
purchased by them since the days of emancipation, with 
their own money, and for their own purposes ; so that 
they might be in all respects free ; free to live in idle- 
ness, or to do such work as an estated man may choose to 
do for himself, his wife, his children, and his property. 

There are many such villages in Guiana, and I was 
told that when the arrangements for the purchases were 
made the dollars were subscribed by the negroes so 
quickly and in such quantities that they were taken to 
the banks in wheelbarrows. At any rate, the result has 
been that tracts of ground have been bought by these 
people and are now owned by them in fee simple. 

It is grievous to me to find myself driven to differ on 
such points as these from men with whose views I have 
up to this period generally agreed. But I feel myself 



174 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



bound to say that the freeholding negroes in Guiana do 
not appear to me to answer. In the first place it seems 
that they have found great difficulty in dividing the land 
among themselves. In all such combined actions some 
persons must be selected as trustworthy ; and those who 
have been so selected have not been worthy of the trust. 
And then the combined action has ceased with the pur- 
chase of the land, whereas, to have produced good it 
should have gone much further. Combined draining 
would have been essential ; combined working has been 
all but necessary ; combined building should have been 
adopted. But the negroes, the purchase once made, 
would combine no further. They could not understand 
that unless they worked together at draining, each man's 
own spot of ground would be a swamp. Each would 
work a little for himself; but none would work for the 
community. A negro village therefore is not a pictu- 
resque object. 

They are very easily known. The cottages, or houses 
— for some of them have aspired to strong, stable, two- 
storied slated houses — stand in extreme disorder, one here 
and another there, just as individual caprice may have 
placed them. There seems to have been no attempt at 
streets or lines of buildings, and certainly not at regu- 
larity in building. Then there are no roads, and hardly 
a path to each habitation. As the ground is not drained, 
in wet weather the whole place is half drowned. Most of 
the inhabitants will probably have made some sort of dyke 
for the immediate preservation of their own dwellings ; 
but as those dykes are not cut with any common purpose, 
they become little more than overflowing ponds, among 
which the negro children crawl and scrape in the mud ; 
and are either drowned, or escape drowning, as Providence 
may direct. The spaces between the buildings are covered 
with no verdure : they are mere mud patches, and are 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



175 



cracked in dry weather, wet, slippery, and filthy in the 
rainy seasons. 

The plantation grounds of these people are outside the 
village, and afford, I am told, cause for constant quarrel- 
ling. They do, however, also afford means of support for 
the greater part of the year, so that the negroes can live, 
some without work and some by working one or two days 
in the week. 

It may perhaps be difficult to explain why a man should 
be expected to work if he can live on his own property 
without working, and enjoy such comforts as he desires. 
And it may be equally difficult to explain why complaint 
should be made as to the wretchedness of any men who 
do not themselves feel that their own state is wretched. 
But, nevertheless, on seeing what there is here to be seen, 
it is impossible to withstand the instinctive conviction 
that a village of freeholding negroes is a failure ; and that 
the community has not been served by the process, either 
as regards themselves or as regards the country. 

Late at night we did reach New Amsterdam, and 
crossed the broad Berbice after dark in a little ferry-boat 
which seemed to be perilously near the water. At ten 
o'clock I found myself at the hotel, and pronounce it, 
without hesitation, to be the best inn, not only in that co- 
lony, but in any of these Western colonies belonging to 
Great Britain. It is kept by a negro, one Mr. Paris 
Brittain, of whom I was informed that he was once a 
slave, 6 0, si sic omnes !' But as regards my experience, 
he is merely the exception which proves the rule. I am 
glad, however, to say a good word for the energies and 
ambition of one of the race, and shall be glad if I can 
obtain for Mr. Paris Brittain an innkeeper's immortality. 

His deserts are so much the greater in that his scope 
for displaying them is so very limited. No man can walk 
along the broad strand street of New Amsterdam, and 



176 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



then up into its parallel street, so back towards the start- 
ing point, and down again to the sea, without thinking of 
Knickerbocker and Rip van Winkle. The Dutchman 
who built New Amsterdam and made it once a thriving 
town must be still sleeping, as the New York Dutchman 
once slept, waiting the time when an irruption from Para- 
maribo and Surinam shall again restore the place to its old 
possessors. 

At present life certainly stagnates at New Amsterdam. 
Three persons in the street constitute a crowd, and five 
collected for any purpose would form a goodly club. But 
the place is clean and orderly, and the houses are good and 
in good repair. They stand, as do the houses in George- 
town, separately, each surrounded by its own garden or 
yard, and are built with reference to the w T ished-for breeze 
from the west. 

The estates up the Berbice river, and the Canje creek 
which runs into it, are, I believe, as productive as those 
on the coast, or on the Demerara or Essequibo rivers, 
and are as well cultivated; but their owmers no longer 
ship their sugars from New Amsterdam. The bar across 
the Berbice river is objectionable, and the trade of George- 
town has absorbed the business of the colony. In olden 
times Berbice and Demerara were blessed each w T ith its 
own Governor, and the two towns stood each on its own 
bottom as two capitals. But those halcyon days — halcyon 
lor Berbice — are gone ; and Bip van Winkle, with all his 
brethren, is asleep. 

I should have said, in speaking of my journey from 
Demerara to Berbice, that the first fifteen miles were 
performed by railway. The colony would have fair 
ground of complaint against me w T ere I to omit to notice 
that it has so far progressed in civilization as to own a rail- 
way. As far as I could learn, the shares do not at present 
stand at a high premium. From Berbice I returned in a 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



177 



coasting steamer. It was a sleepy, dull, hot journey, with- 
out subject of deep interest. I can only remember of it 
that they gave us an excellent luncheon on board, and 
luncheons at such times are very valuable in breaking the 
tedium of the day. 

And now a word as to the million hogsheads of sugar 

o 

and as to the necessary Coolies. Guiana has some reason 
to be proud, seeing that at present it beats all the neigh- 
bouring British colonies in the quantity of sugar produced. 
I believe that it also beats them all as to the quantity of 
rum, though Jamaica still stands first as to the quality. 
In round numbers the sugar exported from Guiana may 
be stated at seventy thousand hogsheads. 

Barbados exports about fifty thousand, Trinidad and 
Jamaica under forty thousand. No other British West 
Indian colony gives fifteen thousand; but Guadaloupe 
and Martinique, two French islands, produce, one over 
fifty thousand and the other nearly seventy thousand 
hogsheads. In order to make this measurement intel- 
ligible, I may explain that a hogshead is generally said 
to contain a ton weight of sugar, but that, when reaching 
the market, it very rarely does come up to that weight. 
I do not give this information as statistically correct, but 
as being sufficiently so to guide the ideas of a man only 
ordinarily anxious to be acquainted in an ordinary manner 
with what is going on in the West Indies. I would not, 
therefore, recommend any Member of Parliament to quote 
the above figures in the House. 

Some twelve years ago the whole produce of sugar in 
the West Indies, including Guiana and excluding the 
Spanish islands, was 275,000 hogsheads. The amount 
which I have above recapitulated, in which the smaller 
islands have been altogether omitted, exceeds 310,000. 
It may therefore be taken as a fact that, on the whole, 
the evil days have come to their worst, and that the 

N 



178 



B1UTIS1I GUIANA. 



tables are turned. It must however be admitted that 
the above figures tell more for French than for English 
prosperity 

In these countries sugar and labour arc almost synony- 
mous ; at any rate, they are convertible substances. In 
none of the colonies named, except Barbados, is the 
amount of sugar produced limited by any other law than 
the amount of labour to be obtained ; and in none of them, 
with that one exception, can any prosperity be hoped for, 
excepting by means of immigrating labour. What I mean 
to state is this : that the extent of native work which can 
be obtained by the planters and land-owners at terms 
which would enable them to grow their produce and bring 
it to the market does not in any of these colonies suffice 
for success. It can be worth no man's while to lay out 
his capital in Jamaica, in Trinidad, or in Guiana, unless 
he has reasonable hope that labouring men will be brought 
into those countries. The great West Indian question is 
now this : Is there reasonable ground for such hope ? 

The Anti-Slavery Society tells us that we ought to 
have no such hope — that it is simply hoping for a return 
of slavery ; that black or coloured labourers brought from 
other lands to the West Indies cannot be regarded as 
free men ; that labourers so brought will surely be ill- 
used ; and that the native negro labourer requires protec- 
tion. As to that question of the return to slavery I have 
already said what few words I have to offer. In one 
sense, no dependent man working for wages can be free. 
He must abide by the terms of his contract. But in the 
usually accepted sense of the word freedom, the Coolie or 
Chinaman immigrating to the West Indies is free. 

As to the charge of ill usage, it appears to me that 
these men could not be treated with more tenderness, un- 
less they were put separately, each under his own glass 
case, with a piece of velvet on which to lie. In England 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



179 



we know of no such treatment for field labourers. On their 
arrival in Demerara they are distributed among the planters 
by the Governor, to each planter according to his applica- 
tion, his means of providing for them, and his willingness 
and ability to pay the cost of the immigration by yearly 
instalments. They are sent to no estate till a government 
officer shall have reported that there are houses for them 
to occupy. There must be a hospital for them on the 
estate, and a regular doctor with a sufficient salary. The 
rate of their wages is stipulated, and their hours of work. 
Though the contract is for five years, they can leave the 
estate at the end of the first three, transferring their ser- 
vices to any other master, and at the end of the five years 
they are entitled to a free passage home. 

If there be no hardship in all this to the immigrating 
Coolie, it may, perhaps, be thought that there is hardship 
to the planter who receives him. He is placed very much 
at the mercy of the Governor, who, having the power of 
giving or refusing Coolies, becomes despotic. And then, 
when this stranger from Hindostan has been taught some- 
thing of his work, he can himself select another master, 
so that one planter may bribe away the labourers of 
another. This, however, is checked to a certain degree 
by a regulation which requires the bribing interloper to 
pay a portion of the expense of immigration. 

As to the native negro requiring protection — protection, 
that is, against competitive labour — the idea is too absurd 
to require any argument to refute it. As it at present is, 
the competition having been established, and being now in 
existence to a certain small extent, these happy negro 
gentlemen will not work on an average more than three 
days a week, nor for above six hours a day. I saw a gang 
of ten or twelve negro girls in a cane-piece, lying idle on 
the ground, waiting to commence their week's labour. It 
was Tuesday morning. On the Monday they had of 

N 2 



180 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



course not come near trie field. Gn the morning of my 
visit they were lying with their hoes beside them, medi- 
tating whether or no they would measure out their work. 
The planter was with me, and they instantly attacked 
him. 6 No, massa ; we no workey ; money no nuff/ said 
one. 6 Four bits no pay ! no pay at all ? said another. 
6 Five bits, massa, and we gin morrow 'arly/ It is hardly 
necessary to say that the gentleman refused to bargain 
with them. ' They'll measure their work to-morrow/ said 
he ; 6 on Thursday they will begin, and on Friday they 
will finish for the week.' 6 But will they not look else- 
where for other work ?' I asked. ' Of course they will/ 
he said ; 6 occupy a whole day in looking for it ; but 
others cannot pay better than I do, and the end will be as 
I tell you.' Poor young ladies ! It will certainly be cruel 
to subject them to the evil of competition in their labour. 

In Gjjuiana the bull has been taken by the horns, as in 
Jamaica it. unfortunately has not; and the first main 
difficulties of immigration have, I think, been overcome. 
For some years past, both from India and from China, 
labourers have been brought in freely, and during the last 
twelve months the number has been very considerable. 
The women also are coming now as well as the men, and 
they have learned to husband their means and put money 
together. 

Such an affair as this — the regular exodus, that is, of a 
people to another land — -has always progressed with great 
rapidity when it has been once established. The difficulty 
is to make a beginning. It is natural enough that men 
should hesitate to trust themselves to a future of which 
they know nothing; and as natural that they should 
hasten to do so when they have heard of the good things 
which Providence has in store for them. It required 
that some few should come out and prosper, and return 
with signs of prosperity. This has new been done, and 



BRITISH GUIAXA. 



181 



as regards Guiana it will not, I imagine, be long before 
negro labour is, if not displaced, made, at any rate, of 
secondary consequence in the colony. As far as the work- 
men are concerned, the million hogsheads will, I think, 
become a possibility, though not perhaps in the days of 
my energetic hopeful friend. 

Both the Coolies and the Chinamen have aptitude in 
putting money together ; and when a man has this apti- 
tude he will work as long as good wages are to be earned. 
6 Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa, &c.' We teach our 
children this lesson, intending them to understand that 
it is pretty nearly the worst of all 6 amors,' and we go on 
with the 6 irritamenta malorum ' till we come to the 6 Sper- 
nere fortior.' It is all, however, of no use. ' Naturam 
expellas furca but the result is still the same. Nature 
knows what she is about. The love of money is a good 
and useful love. What would the world now be without 
it? Or is it even possible to conceive of a world pro- 
gressing without such a love ? Show me ten men without 
it, and I will show you nine who lack zeal for improve- 
ment. Money, like other loved objects — women, for 
instance — should be sought for with honour, won with a 
clean conscience, and used with a free hand. Provided it 
be so guided, the love of money is no ignoble passion. 

The negroes, as a class, have not this aptitude, conse- 
quently they lie in the sun and eat yams, and give no 
profitable assistance towards that saccharine millennium. 
4 Spernere fortior !' That big black woman would so say, 
she who is not contented with four bits, if her education 
had progressed so far. And as she said it, how she would 
turn up her African nose, and what contempt she would 
express with her broad eyes ! Doubtless she does so express 
herself among her negro friends in some nigger patois — 
' Pernere forshaw !' If so, her philosophy does but little 
to assist the world, or herself. 



182 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



There is another race of men, and of women too, who 
have been and now are of the greatest benefit to this 
colony, and with them the 6 Spernere fortior ' is by no 
means a favourite doctrine. There are the Portuguese 
who have come to Demerara from Madeira. I believe 
that they are not to be found in any of the islands ; but 
here, in Guiana, they are in great numbers, and thrive 
wonderfully. At almost every corner of two streets in 
Georgetown is to be seen a small shop ; and those shops 
are, I think without exception, kept by Portuguese. 
Nevertheless they all reached the Demerara river in 
absolute poverty, intending to live on the wages of field 
labour, and certainly prepared to do their work like men. 
As a rule, they are a steady, industrious class, and have 
proved themselves to be good citizens. In the future 
amalgamation of races, which will take place here as else- 
where in the tropics, the Portugee-Madeira element will 
not be the least efficient. 

I saw the works on three or four sugar estates in 
Demerara, and though I am neither a sugar grower nor 
a mechanic, I am able to say that the machinery and 
material of this colony much exceed anything I have seen 
in any of our own West Indian islands ; and in the point 
of machinery, equals what I saw in Cuba. Everything is 
done on a much larger scale, and in a more proficient 
manner than at — Barbados, we will say. I instance 
Barbados because the planters there play so excellent a 
melody on their own trumpets. In that island not one 
planter in five, not one I believe in fifteen, has any steam 
appliance on his estate. They trust to the wind for their 
motive power, as did their great-great-grandfathers. But 
there is steam on every estate in Guiana. The vacuum 
pan and the centrifugal machine for extracting the molasses 
are known only by name in Barbados, whereas they are 
common appliances in Demerara. There two hundred 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



183 



hogsheads is a considerable produce for one planter. Here 
they make eight hundred hogsheads, a thousand, and 
twelve hundred. A Barbados man will reply to this that 
the thing to be looked to is the profit, or what he will call 
the clearance. The sugar-consuming world, however, will 
know nothing about this, will hear nothing of individual 
profits. But it will recognize the fact that the Demerara 
sugar is of a better quality than that which comes from 
Barbados, and will believe that the merchant or planter 
who does not use the latest appliances of science, whether 
it be in manufacture or agriculture, will before long go to 
the wall. 

Looking over a sugar estate and sugar works is an ex- 
citing amusement certainly, but nevertheless it palls upon 
one at last. I got quite into the way of doing it ; and 
used to taste the sugars and examine the crystals ; make 
comparisons and pronounce, I must confess as regards 
Barbados, a good deal of adverse criticism. But this 
was merely to elicit the true tone of Barbadian elo- 
quence, the long-drawn nasal fecundity of speech which 
comes forth so fluently when their old windmills are 
attacked. 

But the amusement, as I have said, does pall upon one. 
In spite of the difference of the machinery, the filtering- 
bags and centrifugals in one, the Gradsden pans in another, 
and the simple oscillators in a third — (the Barbados estate 
stands for the third) — one does get weary of walking up 
to a sugar battery, and looking at the various heated 
caldrons, watching till even the inexperienced eye per- 
ceives that the dirty liquor has become brown sugar, as it 
runs down from a dipper into a cooling vat. 

I wonder whether I could make the process in any 
simple way intelligible ; or whether in doing so I should 
afford gratification to a single individual ? Were I myself 
reading such a book of travels I should certainly skip such 



184 



BEITISH GUIANA. 



description. Eeader, do thou do likewise. Nevertheless, 
jt shall not exceed three or four pages. 

The cane must first be cut. As regards a planted cane, 
that is the first crop from the plant — (for there are such 
things as ratoons, of which a word or two will be found 
elsewhere) — as regards the planted cane, the cutting, I 
believe, takes place after about fourteen months' growth. 
The next process is that of the mill ; the juice, that is, has 
to be squeezed out of it. The cane should not lie above 
two days before it is squeezed. It is better to send it to 
the mill the day after it is cut, or the hour after ; in fact, 
as soon indeed as may be. In Demerara they are brought 
to the mill by water always ; in Barbados, by carts and 
mules ; in Jamaica, by waggons and oxen ; so also in Cuba. 
The mill consists of three rollers, which act upon each 
other like cogwheels. The canes are passed between two, 
an outside one, say, and a centre one ; and the refuse stalk, 
or trash (so called in Jamaica), or magass (so called in 
Barbados and Demerara), comes out between the same 
centre one and the other outside roller. The juice mean- 
while is strained down to a cistern or receptacle below. 
These rollers are quite close, so that it would seem to be 
impossible that the cane should go through ; but it does 
go through with great ease, if the mill be good and 
powerful ; but frequently with great difficulty, if the mill 
be bad and not powerful; for which latter alternative 
vide Barbados. The canes give from sixty to seventy per 
cent, of juice. Sometimes less than sixty, not often over 
seventy. 

The juice, which is then of a dirty-yellow colour, and 
apparently about the substance of milk, is brought from 
the mill through a pipe into the first vat, in which it is 
tempered. This is done with lime, and the object is to 
remedy the natural acidity of the juice. In this first vat 
it is warmed, but not more than warmed. It then runs 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



135 



from these vats into boilers, or at any rate into receptacles 
in which it is boiled. These in Barbados are called taches. 
At each of these a man stands with a long skimmer, 
shimmering the juice as it were, and scraping off certain 
skuin which comes to the top. There are from three to 
seven of these taches, and below them, last of all, is the 
boiler, the veritable receptacle in which the juice becomes 
sugar. In the taches, especially the first of them, the 
liquor becomes dark green in colour. As it gets nearer 
the boiler it is thicker and more clouded, and begins to 
assume its well-known tawny hue. 

Over the last boiler stands the man who makes the 
sugar. It is for him to know what heat to apply and 
how long to apply it. The liquor now ceases to be juice 
and becomes sugar. This is evident to the eye and nose, 
for though the stuff in the boiler is of course still liquid, it 
looks like boiled melted sugar, and the savour is the savour 
of sugar. When the time has come, and the boiling is 
boiled, a machine suspended from on high, and called a 
dipper, is let down into the caldron. It nearly fits the 
caldron, being, as it were, in itself a smaller caldron going 
into the other. The sugar naturally runs over the side of 
this and fills it, some little ingenuity being exercised in 
the arrangement. The dipper, full of sugar, is then drawn 
up on high. At the bottom of it is a valve, so that on the 
pulling of a rope, the hot liquid runs out. This dipper is 
worked like a crane, and is made to swing itself from over 
the boiler to a position in which the sugar runs from it 
through a wooden trough to the flat open vats in which it 
is cooled. 

But at this part of the manufacture there are various 
different methods. According to that which is least ad- 
vanced, the sugar is simply cooled in the vat, then put 
into buckets in a half-solid state and thrown out of the 
buckets into the hogsheads. 



186 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



According to the more advanced method it runs from 
the dipper down through filtering bags, is then pumped 
into a huge vacuum pan, a utensil like a kettle-drum 
turned topsy-turvy, a kettle-drum that is large enough 
to hold six tons of sugar. Then it is reheated, and then 
put into open round boxes called centrifugals, the sides 
of which are made of metal pierced like gauze. These 
are whisked round and round by steam-power at an 
enormous rate, and the molasses flies out through the 
gauze, leaving the sugar dry and nearly white. It is 
then fit to go into the hogshead, and fit also to be shipped 
away. 

But in the simpler process, the molasses drains from 
the sugar in the hogshead. To facilitate this, as the 
sugar is put into the cask, reeds are stuck through it, 
which communicate with holes at the bottom, so that 
there may be channels through which the molasses may 
run. The hogsheads stand upon beams lying a foot apart 
from each other, and below is a dark abyss into which 
the molasses falls. I never could divest myself of the 
idea that the negro children occasionally fall through also, 
and are then smothered and so distilled into rum. 

There are various other processes, intermediate between 
the highly-civilized vacuum pan and the simple cooling, 
with which I will not trouble my reader. Nor will I go 
into the further mystery of rum-making. That the rum 
is made from the molasses every one knows ; and from the 
negro children, as I suspect. 

The process of sugarmaking is very rapid if the ap- 
pliances be good. A planter in Demerara assured me 
that he had cut his canes in the morning, and had the 
sugar in Georgetown in the afternoon. Fudge ! however, 
was the remark made by another planter to whom I 
repeated this. Whether it was fudge or not I do not 
know ; but it was clearly possible that such should be the 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



187 



case. The manufacture is one which does not require any 
delay. 

In Demerara an acre of canes will on an average give 
over a ton and a half of sugar. But an acre of cane 
ground will not give a crop once in twelve months. 
Two crops in three years may perhaps be the average. 
So much for the manufacture of sugar. I hope my 
account may not be criticised by those who are learned 
in the art, as it is only intended for those who are utterly 
unlearned. 

But if looking over sugar works be at last fatiguing, 
what shall 1 say to that labour of c going aback/ which 
Guiana planters exact from their visitors. Going aback 
in Guiana means walking from the house and manufac- 
tory back to the fields where the canes grow. I have 
described the shape of a Demerara estate. The house 
generally stands not far from the water frontage, so that 
the main growth of the sugar is behind. This going 
aback generally takes place before breakfast. But the 
breakfast is taken at eleven, and a Demerara sun is in all 
its glory for three hours before that. Bemember, also, 
that there are no trees in these fields, no grass, no wild 
flowers, no meandering paths Everything is straight, 
and open, and ugly ; and everything has a tendency to 
sugar, and no other tendency whatever, unless it be to 
rum. Sugar-canes is the only growth. So that a walk 
aback, except to a very close inquirer, is not delightful. 
It must however be confessed that the subsequent break- 
fast makes up for a deal of misery. There is no such 
breakfast going as that of a Guiana planter. Talk of 
Scotland ! Pooh ! But one has to think of that doctor's 
dictum— 4 The prevalent disease, sir ? Brandy !' It 
seems, however, to me to show itself more generally in 
the shape of champagne. 

There is one other peculiar characteristic of landed 



188 



BRITISH GUIANA. 



| property in this colony which I must mention. All the 
carriage is by water, not only from the works to the town, 
but from the fields to the works, and even from field to 
field. The whole country is intersected by drains, which 
are necessary to carry off the surface waters ; there is no 
natural fall of water, or next to none, and but for its 
drains and sluices. the land would be flooded in wet weather. 
Parallel to these drains are canals ; there being, as nearly 
as I could learn, one canal between each two drains. 
These different dykes are to a stranger similar in appear- 
ance, but their uses are always kept distinct. 

Nor do these canals run only between wide fields, or 
at a considerable distance from each other. They pierce 
every portion of land, so that the canes when cut have 
never to be carried above a few yards. The expense of 
keeping them in order is very great, but the labour of 
making them must have been immense. It was done by 
the Dutch. One may almost question whether any other 
race would have had the patience necessary for such a 
work. 

I was told on one estate that there were no less than 
sixty-three miles of these cuttings to be kept in order. 
But the gentleman who told me was he to whom the other 
gentleman alluded, when he used our old friend Mr. 
Burchell's exclamation. There can be no doubt but that 
these Guiana planters know each other. 

On the whole I must express my conviction that this 
is a fine colony, and will become of very great import- 
ance. 

Our great Thunderer the other day spoke of the govern- 
ance of a sugar island as a duty below a man's notice ; as 
\ being almost worthy of contempt. We cannot all be gods 
and forge thunderbolts. But we all wish to consume sugar ; 
and if we can do in one of our colonies without slaves what 
Cuba is doing with slaves, the work I think will not be 



BRITISH GUIAXA. 



189 



contemptible, nor the land contemptible in which it is 
done. I do look to see our free Cuba in Guiana, and even 
have my hopes as to that million of hogsheads. 

1 have said, in speaking of Jamaica, that I thought the 
negro had hardly yet shown himself capable of understand- 
ing the teaching of the Christian religion. As regards 
Guiana, "what I heard on this matter I heard chiefly from 
clergymen of the Church of England ; and though they 
would of course not agree with me — for it is not natural 
that a man should doubt the efficacy of his own teaching 
— nevertheless, what I gathered from them strengthens 
my former opinions. 

I do think that the Guiana negro is in this respect 
somewhat superior to his brother in Jamaica. He is 
more intelligent, and comes nearer to our idea of a 
thoughtful being. But still even here it seems to me 
that he never connects his religion with his life ; never 
reflects that his religion should bear upon his conduct. 

Here, as in the islands, the negroes much prefer to 
belong to a Baptist congregation, or to a so-called Wesleyan 
body. That excitement is there allowed to them which 
is denied in our church. They sing and hallo and scream, 
and have revivals. They talk of their 6 dear brothers ' 
and 6 dear sisters,' and in their ecstatic howlings get some 
fun for their money. I doubt also whether those dis- 
agreeable questions as to conduct are put by the Baptists 
which they usually have to undergo from our clergymen. 
4 So-called Wesleyans,' I say, because the practice of their 
worship here is widely removed from the sober gravity of 
the Wesleyan churches in England. 

I have said that the form of government in Guiana 
was a mild despotism, tempered by sugar. The Governor, 
it must be understood, has not absolute authority. There 
is a combined house, with a power of voting, by whom he 
is controlled — at any rate in financial matters. But of 



190 BEITISH GUIANA. 

those votes he commands many as Governor, and as long 
as he will supply Coolies quick enough — and Coolies mean 
sugar — he may command them all. 

' We are not particular to a shade,' the planters wisely 
say to him, ' in what way we are governed. If you have 
any fads of your own about this or about that, by all means 
indulge them. Even if you want a little more money, in 
God's name take it. But the business of a man's life is 
sugar : there's the land ; the capital shall be forthcoming, 
whether begged, borrowed, or stolen ; — do you supply the 
labour. Give us Coolies enough, and we will stick at 
nothing. We are an ambitious colony. There looms 
before us a great future — a million hogsheads of sugar !' 

The form of government here is somewhat singular. 
There are two Houses — Lords and Commons — but not 
acting separately as ours do. The upper House is the 
Court of Policy. This consists of five official members, 
whose votes may therefore be presumed to be at the ser- 
vice of the Governor, and of five elected members. The 
Governor himself, sitting in this court, has the casting 
vote. But he also has something to say to the election 
of the other five. They are chosen by a body of men 
called Kiezers — probably Dutch for choosers. There is a 
college of Kiezers, elected for life by the tax-payers, 
whose main privilege appears to be that of electing these 
members of the Court of Policy. But on every occasion 
they send up two names, and the Governor selects one ; 
so that he can always keep out any one man who may be 
peculiarly disagreeable to him. This Court of Policy acts, 
I think, when acting by itself, more as a privy council to 
the Governor than as a legislative body. 

Then there are six Financial Representatives ; two 
from Berbice, one from town and one from country; 
two from Demerara, one from town and one from country ; 
and two from Essequibo, both from the country, there 



BEITISH GUIAXA. 



191 



being no town. These are elected by the tax-payers. 
They are assembled for purposes of taxation only, as far 
as I understood ; and even as regards this they are joined 
with the Court of Policy, and thus form what is called the 
Combined Court. The Crown, therefore, has very little 
to tie its hands ; and I think that I am justified in de- 
scribing the government as a mild despotism, tempered by 
sugar. 

So much for British Guiana. I cannot end this crude 
epitome of crude views respecting the colony without 
saying that I never met a pleasanter set of people than 
I found there, or ever passed my hours much moie 
joyously. 



( .192 ) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BARBADOS. 

Barbados is a very respectably little island, and it makes 
a great deal of sugar. It is not picturesquely beautiful, 
as are almost all the other Antilles, and therefore has but 
few attractions for strangers. 

But this very absence of scenic beauty has saved it 
from the fate of its neighbours. A country that is broken 
into landscapes, that boasts of its mountains, woods, and 
waterfalls, that is regarded for its wild loveliness, is 
seldom propitious to agriculture. A portion of the surface 
in all such regions defies the improving farmer. But, 
beyond this, such ground under the tropics offers every 
inducement to the negro squatter. In Jamaica, Dominica, 
St. Lucia, and Grenada, the negro, when emancipated, 
could squat and make himself happy ; but in Barbados 
there was not an inch for him. 

When emancipation came there was no squatting 
ground for the poor Barbadian. He had still to work and 
make sugar — work quite as hard as he had done while yet 
a slave. He had to do that or to starve. Consequently, 
labour has been abundant in this island, and in this island 
only ; and in all the West Indian troubles it has kept its 
head above water, and made sugar respectably — not, 
indeed, showing much sugar genius, or going ahead in the 
way of improvements, but paying twenty shillings in the 



BARBADOS. 



193 



pound, supporting itself, and earning its bread decently 
by the sweat of its brow. The pity is that the Barbadians 
themselves should think so much of their own achieve- 
ments. 

The story runs, that when Europe was convulsed by 
revolutions and wars — when continental sovereigns were 
flying hither and thither, and there was so strong a rumour 
that Napoleon was going to eat us — the great Napoleon I 
mean — that then, I say, the Barbadians sent word over to 
poor King George the Third, bidding him fear nothing. 
If England could not protect him, Barbados would. Let 
him come to them, if things looked really blue on his side 
of the Channel. It was a fine, spirited message, but 
perhaps a little self-glorious. That, I should say, is the 
character of the island in general. 

As to its appearance, it is, as I have said, totally 
different from any of the other islands, and to an English 
eye much less attractive in its character. But for the 
heat its appearance would not strike with any surprise an 
Englishman accustomed to an ordinary but ugly agricul- 
tural country. It has not the thick tropical foliage which 
is so abundant in the other islands, nor the wild, grassy 
dells, Happily for the Barbadians every inch of it will 
produce canes ; and, to the credit of the Barbadians, 
every inch of it does so. A Barbadian has a right to be 
proud of this, but it does not make the island interesting. 
It is the waste land of the world that makes it picturesque. 
But there is not a rood of waste land in Barbados. It 
certainly is not the country for a gipsy immigration. 
Indeed, I doubt whether there is even room for a picnic. 

The island is something over twenty miles long, and 
something over twelve broad. The roads are excellent, 
but so white that they sadly hurt the eye of a stranger. 
The authorities have been very particular about their 
milestones, and the inhabitants talk much about their 

0 



194 



BABBADOS, 



journeys. I found myself constantly being impressed 
with ideas of distance, till I was impelled to suggest a 
rather extended system of railroads — a proposition which 
was taken in very good part. I was informed that the 
population was larger than that of China, but my in- 
formant of course meant by the square foot. He could 
hardly have counted by the square mile in Barbados. 

And thus I was irresistibly made to think of the frog 
that would blow itself out and look as large as an ox. 

Bridgetown, the metropolis of the island, is much like 
a second or third rate English town. It has none of the 
general peculiarities of the West Indies, except the heat. 
The streets are narrow, irregular, and crooked, so that at 
first a stranger is apt to miss his way. They all, however, 
converge at Trafalgar Square, a spot which, in Barbados, 
is presumed to compete with the open space at Charing 
Cross bearing the same name. They have this resemblance, 
that each contains a statue of Nelson. The Barbadian 
Trafalgar Square contains also a tree, which is more than 
can be said for its namesake. It can make also this boast, 
that no attempt has been made within it which has failed 
so grievously as our picture gallery. In saying this, 
however, I speak of the building only — by no means of the 
pictures. 

There are good shops in Bridgetown — good, respectable, 
well-to-do shops, that sell everything from a candle down 
to a coffin, including wedding-rings, corals, and widows' 
caps. But they are hot, fusty, crowded places, as are 
such places in third-rate English towns. But then the 
question of heat here is of such vital moment ! A pur- 
chase of a pair of gloves in Barbados drives one at once 
into the ice-house. 

And here it may be well to explain this very peculiar, 
delightful, but too dangerous West Indian institution. 
By-the-by I do not know that there was any ice-house in 



BABBADOS. 



195 



Kingston, Jamaica. If there be one there, my friends 
were peculiarly backward, for I certainly was not made 
acquainted with it. But everywhere else — at Demerara, 
Trinidad, Barbados, and St. Thomas — I was duly intro- 
duced to the ice-house. 

There is something cool and mild in the name, which 
makes one fancy that ladies would delight to frequent it. 
But, alas ! a West Indian ice-house is but a drinking-shop 
— a place where one goes to liquor, as the Americans call 
it, without the knowledge of the feminine creation. It is 
a drinking-shop, at which the draughts are all cool, are all 
iced, but at which,' alas! they are also all strong. The 
brandy, I fear, is as essential as the ice. A man may, it 
is true, drink iced soda water without any concomitant, ir 
he may simply have a few drops of raspberry vinegar to 
flavour it. No doubt many an easy-tempered wife so 
imagines. But if so, I fear that they are deceived. Now 
the ice-house in Bridgetown seemed to me to be peculiarly 
well attended. I look upon this as the effect of the white 
streets and the fusty shops. 

Barbados claims, I believe — but then it claims every- 
thing — to have a lower thermometer than any other West 
Indian island — to be, in fact, cooler than any of her sisters. 
As far as the thermometer goes, it may be possible ; but 
as regards the human body, it is not the fact. Let any 
man walk from his hotel to morning church and back, and 
then judge. 

There is a mystery about hotels in the British West 
Indies. They are always kept by fat, middle-aged 
coloured ladies, who have no husbands. I never found 
an exception except at Berbice, where my friend Paris 
Brittain keeps open doors in the city of the sleepers. 
These ladies are generally called Miss So-and-So; Miss 
Jenny This, or Miss Jessy That; but they invariably 
seemed to have a knowledge of the world, especially of 

o 2 



]96 BARBADOS. 

the male hotel-frequenting world, hardly compatible with 
a retiring maiden state of life. I only mention this. I 
cannot solve the riddle. e Davus sum, non CEdipus.' 
But it did strike me as singular that the profession should 
always be in the hands of these ladies, and that they should 
never get husbands. 

As a rule, there is not much to be said against these 
hotels, though they will not come up to the ideas of a 
traveller who has been used t© the inns of Switzerland. 
The table is always plentifully supplied, and the viands 
generally good. Of that at Barbados I can .make no 
complaint, except this ; that the people over the way kept 
a gray parrot which never ceased screaming day or night. 
I was deep in my Jamaica theory of races, and this 
wretched bird nearly drove me wild. 

4 Can anything be done to stop it, James ?' 

c No 3 massa.' 

6 Nothing? Wouldn't they hang a cloth over it for a 

shilling ?' 

4 No, massa ; him only make him scream de more to 
speak to him.' 

I took this as final, though whether the 6 him ' was the 
man or the parrot, I did not know. But such a bird I 
never heard before, and the street was no more than 
twelve feet broad. He was, in fact, just under my 
window. Thrice had I to put aside my theory of races. 
Otherwise than on this score Miss Caroline Lee's hotel 
at Barbados is very fair. And as for hot pickles — she is 
the very queen of them. 

Whether or no my informant was right in saying that 
the population of Barbados is more dense than that of 
China, I cannot say ; but undoubtedly it is very great ; 
and hence, as the negroes cannot get their living without 
working, has come the prosperity of the island. The in- 
habitants are, I believe, very nearly 150,000 in number. 



BARBADOS. 



197 



This is a greater population than that of the whole of 
Guiana. The consequence is, that the cane-pieces are 
cultivated very closely, and that all is done that manual 
labour can do. 

The negroes here differ much, I think, from those in the 
other islands, not only in manner, but even in form and 
physiognomy. They are of heavier build, broader in the 
face, and higher in the forehead. They are also certainly 
less good-humoured, and more inclined to insolence ; so 
that if anything be gained in intelligence it is lost in 
conduct. On the whole, I do think that the Barbados 
negroes are more intelligent than others that I have met. 
It is probable that this may come from more continual 
occupation. 

But if the black people differ from their brethren of 
the other islands, so certainly do the white people. One v 
soon learns to know a — Bim. That is the name in which 
they themselves delight, and therefore, though there is a 
sound of slang about it, I give it here. One certainly 
soon learns to know a Bim. The most peculiar distinction 
is in his voice. There is always a nasal twang about it, 
but quite distinct from the nasality of a Yankee. The 
Yankee's word rings sharp through his nose ; not so that 
of the first-class Bim. There is a soft drawl about it, and 
the sound is seldom completely formed. The effect on the 
ear is the same as that on the hand when a man gives you 
his to shake, and instead of shaking yours, holds his own 
still. When a man does so to me I always wish to kick 
him. 

I had never any wish to kick the Barbadian, more 
especially as they are all stout men ; but I cannot but 
think that if he were well shaken a more perfect ring- 
would come out of him. 

The Bims, as I have said, are generally stout fellows. 
As a rule they are larger and fairer than other West 



198 



BAEBADOS. 



Indian Creoles, less delicate in their limbs, and more 
clumsy in their gait. The male graces are not much 
studied in Barbados. But it is not only by their form or 
voice that you may know them — not only by the voice, 
but by the words. No people ever praised themselves so 
constantly ; no set of men were ever so assured that they 
and their occupations are the main pegs on which the 
world hangs. Their general law to men would be this : 
' Thou shalt make sugar in the sweat of thy brow, and 
make it as it is made in Barbados/ Any deviation from 
that law would be a deviation from the highest duty of 
man. 

Of many of his sister colonies a Barbadian can speak 
with temper. When Jamaica is mentioned philanthropic 
compassion lights up his face, and he tells you how much 
he feels for the poor wretches there who call themselves 
planters. St. Lucia also he pities, and Grenada ; and of 
St. Vincent he has some hope. Their little efforts he 
says are praiseworthy ; only, alas ! they are so little ! He 
does not think much of Antigua ; and turns up his nose 
at Nevis and St. Kitts, which in a small way are doing a 
fair stroke of business. The French islands he does not 
love, but that is probably patriotism: as the French 
islands are successful sugar growers such patriotism is 
natural. But do not speak to him of Trinidad ; that 

subject is very sore. And as for Guiana ! One 

knows what to expect if one holds a red rag up to a bull. 
Praise Guiana sugar-making in Bridgetown, and you will 
be holding up a red rag to a dozen bulls, no one of which 
will refuse the challenge. And thus you may always 
know a Bim. 

When I have met four or five together, I have not 
dared to try this experiment, for they are wrathy men, 
and have rough sides to their tongues; but I have so 
encountered two at a time. 



BARBADOS. 



199 



6 Yes,' I have said ; ' the superiority of Barbados can- 
not be doubted. We all grant that. But which colony is 
second in the race ?' 

( It is impossible to say/ said A. £ They are none of 
them well circumstanced.' 

4 None of them have got any labour,' said B. 

4 They can't make returns,' said A. 

£ Just look at their clearances,' said B ; 4 and then look at 
ours.' 

4 Jamaica sugar is paying now,' I remarked. 

6 Jamaica, sir, has been destroyed root and branch/ said 
A, well pleased ; for they delight to talk of Jamaica. 

4 And no one can lament it more than I do/ said B. 
4 J amaica is a fine island, only utterly ruined.' 

4 Magnificent ! such scenery !' I replied. 

4 But it can't make sugar,' said B. 

4 What of Trinidad ?' I asked. 

4 Trinidad, sir, is a fine wild island ; and perhaps some 
day we may get our coal there.' 

'But Demerara makes a little sugar/ I ventured to 
remark. 

4 It makes deuced little money, I know/ said A. 
4 Every inch of it is mortgaged/ said B. 
4 But their steam-engines,' said I. 
4 Look at their clearances/ said A. 
4 They have none/ said B. 

'At any rate, they have got beyond windmills/ I 
remarked, with considerable courage. 

6 Because they have got no wind/ said A. 

4 A low bank of mud below the sea-level/ said B. 

4 But a fine country for sugar/ said I. 

4 They don't know what sugar is/ said A. 

4 Look at their vacuum pans/ said I. 

6 All my eye/ said B. 

6 And their filtering-bags/ said I. 



200 



BARBADOS. 



6 Filtering-bags be d — / said A. 

' Centrifugal machines/ said I, now nearly exhausted. 

' We've tried them, and abandoned them long ago/ 
said B, only now coming well on to the fight. 

' Their sugar is nearly white/ said I ; ; and yours is a 
dirty brown/ 

c Their sugar don't pay/ said A, 'and ours does.' 

( Look at the price of our land/ said 13. 

4 Yes, and the extent o f> it/ said I. 

' Our clearances, sir ! The clearances, sir, are the thing/ 
said A. 

' The year's income/ said B. 

' A hogshead to the acre/ said I ; c and that only got 
from guano.' 

This was my last shot at them. They both came at me 
open-mouthed together, and I confess that I retired, van- 
quished, from the field. 

It is certainly the fact that they do make their sugar in 
a very old-fashioned way in Barbados, using windmills 
instead of steam, and that you see less here of the improved 
machinery for the manufacture than in Demerara, or Cuba, 
or Trinidad, or even in Jamaica. The great answer given 
to objections is that the old system pays best. It may 
perhaps do so for the present moment, though I* should 
doubt even that. But I am certain that it cannot continue 
to do so. No trade, and no agriculture can afford to 
dispense with the improvements of science. 

I found some here who acknowledged that the mere 
produce of the cane from the land had been pressed too 
far by means of guano. A great crop is thus procured, 
but it appears that the soil is injured, and that the sugar 
is injured also. The canes, moreover, will not ratoon as 
they used to do, and as they still do in other parts of the 
West Indies. The cane is planted, and when ripe is cut. 
If allowed, another cane will grow from the same plant, 



BARBADOS. 



201 



and that is a ratoon ; and again a third will grow, giving a 
third crop from the same plant ; and in many soils a fourth ; 
and in some few many more ; and one hears of canes ra- 
tooning for twenty years. 

If the same amount and quality of sugar be produced, of 
course the system of ratooning must be by far the cheapest 
and most profitable. In I believe most of our colonies the 
second crop is as good as the first, and I understand that 
it used to be so in Barbados. But it is not so now. The 
ratoon almost always looks poor, and the second ratoons 
appear to be hardly worth cutting. I believe that this is. 
so much the case that many Barbados planters now look to 
get but one crop only from each planting. This failing 
off hi the real fertility of the soil is I think owing to the 
use of artificial manure, such as guano. 

There is a system all through these sugar growing coun- 
tries of burning the magass, or trash : that is the stalk of 
the cane, or remnant of the stalk after it comes through 
the mill. What would be said of an English agriculturist 
who burnt his straw ? It is I believe one of the soundest 
laws of agriculture that the refuse of the crop should 
return to the ground which gave it. 

To this it will be answered that the English agricul- 
turist is nut called on by the necessity of his position to 
burn his straw. He has not to boil his wheat, nor yet his 
beef and mutton ; whereas the Barbados farmer is obliged 
to boil his crop. At the present moment the Barbados 
farmer is under this obligation ; but he is not obliged to 
do it with the refuse produce of his fields. He cannot 
perhaps use coals immediately under his boilers, but he can 
heat them with steam which comes pretty much to the 
same thing. 

All this applies not to Barbados only, but to Guiana, 
Jamaica, and the other islands also. At all of them the 
magass or trash is burnt. But at none of them is manure 



202 



BARBADOS. 



so much needed as at Barbados. They cannot there take 
into cultivation new fresh virgin soil when they wish it, 
as they can in Guiana. 

And then one is tempted to ask the question, whether 
every owner of land is obliged to undertake all the com- 
plete duties which now are joined together at a sugar 
estate ? It certainly is the case, that no single individual 
could successfully set himself against the system. But I 
do not see why a collection of individuals should not do so. 

A farmer in England does not grow the wheat, then 
grind it, and then make the bread. The growing is 
enough for him. Then comes the miller, and the baker. 
But on a sugar estate, one and the same man grows the 
cane, makes the sugar, and distils the rum ; thus alto- 
gether opposing the salutary principle of the division of 
labour. I cannot see why the grower should not sell his 
canes to a sugar manufacturer. There can, I believe, be 
no doubt of this, that sugar can be made better and cheaper 
in large quantities than in small. 

But the clearance, sir; that is the question. How 
would this affect the clearance ? The sugar manufacturer 
would want his profit. Of course he would, as do the 
miller and the baker. 

They complain greatly at Barbados, as they do indeed 
elsewhere, that they are compelled to make bad sugar by 
the differential duty. The duty on good sugar is so much 
higher than that on bad sugar, that the bad or coarse 
sugar pays them best. This is the excuse they give for 
not making a finer article, and I believe that the excuse 
is true. 

I made one or two excursions in the island, and was 
allowed the privilege of attending an agricultural break- 
fast, at which there were some twenty or thirty planters. 
It seems that a certain number of gentlemen living in 
the same locality had formed themselves into a society, 



BABBADOS. 



203 



with the object of inspecting each other's estates. A com- 
mittee of three was named in each case by the president ; 
and this committee, after surveying the estate in question, 
and looking at the works and stock, drew up a paper, 
either laudatory or the reverse, which paper was after- 
wards read to the society. These readings took place 
after the breakfast, and the breakfast was held monthly. 
To the planter probably the reading of the documents was 
the main object. It may not be surprising that I gave 
the preference to the breakfast, which of its kind was good. 

But this was not the only breakfast of the sort at which • 
I was allowed to be a guest. The society has always its 
one great monthly breakfast ; but the absolute inspection 
gives occasions for further breakfasts. I was also at one of 
these, and assisted in inspecting the estate. There were, 
however, too many Barbadians present to permit of my 
producing my individual views respecting the Guiana im- 
provements. 

The report is made at the time of the inspection, but it 
is read in public at the monthly meeting. The effect no 
doubt is good, and the publicity of the approval or dis- 
approval stimulates the planter. But I was amused with 
the true Barbadian firmness with which the gentlemen 
criticised declared that they would not the less take their 
own way, and declined to follow the advice offered to 
them in the report. I heard two such reports read, and 
in both cases this occurred. 

All this took place at Hookleton cliff, which the Bar- 
badians regard as the finest point for scenery in the island. 
The breakfast I own was good, and the discourse useful 
and argumentative. But as regards the scenery, there is 
little to be said for it, considering that I had seen Jamaica, 
and was going to see Trinidad. 

Even in Barbados, numerous as are the negroes, they 
certainly live an easier life than that of an English 



204 



BARBADOS. 



labourer, earn their money with more facility, and are 
more independent of their masters. A gentleman having 
one hundred and fifty families living on his property 
would not expect to obtain from them the labour of above 
ninety men at the usual rate of pay, and that for not more 
than five days a week. They live in great comfort, and 
in some things are beyond measure extravagant. 

' Do you observe/ said a lady to me, ( that the women 
when they walk never hold up their dresses ?' 

6 1 certainly have,' I answered. 6 Probably they are 
but ill shod, and do not care to show their feet.' 

' Not at alL Their feet have nothing to do with it. 
But they think it economical to hold up their petticoats. 
It betokens a stingy, saving disposition, and they prefer to 
show that they do not regard a few yards of muslin more 
or less.' 

This is perfectly true of them. As the shopman in 
Jamaica said to me — In this part of the world we must 
never think of little economies. The very negroes are 
ashamed to do so. 

Of the coloured people I saw nothing, except that the 
shops are generally attended by them. They seemed not 
to be so numerous as they are elsewhere, and are, I think, 
never met with in the society of white people. In no 
instance did I meet one, and I am told that in Barbados 
there is a very rigid adherence to this rule. Indeed, one 
never seems to have the alternative of seeing them ; 1 
whereas in Jamaica one has not the alternative of avoid- 
ing them. As regards myself, I would much rather have 
been thrown among them. 

I think that in all probability the white settlers in 
Barbados have kept themselves more distinct from the 
negro race, and have not at any time been themselves so 
burdened with coloured children as is the case elsewhere. 
If this be so, they certainly deserve credit for their prudence. 



BAEBADOS. 



205 



Here also there is a King, Lords, and Commons, or a 
governor, a council, and an assembly. The council con- 
sists of twelve, and are either chosen by the Crown, or 
enjoy their seat by virtue of office held by appointment 
from the Crown. The Governor in person sits in the 
council. The assembly consists of twenty-two, who are 
annually elected by the parishes. None but white men 
do vote at these elections, though no doubt a black man 
could vote, if a black man were allowed to obtain a free- 
hold. Of course, therefore, none but white men can be 
elected. How it is decided whether a man be white or 
not, that I did not hear. The greater part of the legisla- 
tive business of the island is done by committees, who are 
chosen from these bodies. 

Here, as elsewhere through the West Indies, one meets 
with unbounded hospitality. A man who dines out on 
Monday will receive probably three invitations for Tues- 
day, and six for Wednesday. And they entertain very 
well. That haunch of mutton and turkey, which are now 
the bugbear of the English dinner-giver, do not seem to 
trouble the minds or haunt the tables of West Indian 
hosts. 

And after all, Barbados — little England as it delights to 
call itself — is and should be respected among islands. It 
owes no man anything, pays its own way, and never makes 
a poor mouth. Let us say what we will self-respect is a 
fine quality, and the Barbadians certainly enjoy that. It 
is a very fine quality, and generally leads to respect from 
others. They who have nothing to say for themselves 
will seldom find others to say much for them. I therefore 
repeat what I said at first. Barbados is a very respectable 
little island, and, considering the limited extent of its 
acreage, it does make a great deal of sugar. 



( 206 ) 



CHAPTER XIV, 

TRINIDAD. 

No scenery can be more picturesque than that afforded 
by the entrance to Port of Spain, the chief town in the 
island of Trinidad. Trinidad, as all men doubtless know, 
is the southernmost of the West Indian islands, and lies 
across the delta of the Orinoco river. The western portion 
of the island is so placed that it nearly reaches with two 
horns two different parts of the mainland of Venezuela, 
one of the South American republics. And thus a bay is 
formed closed in between the island and the mainland, 
somewhat as is the Grulf of Mexico by the island of 
Cuba ; only that the proportions here are much less in size. 
This enclosed sea is called the Grulf of Paria. 

The two chief towns, I believe I may say the two only 
towns in Trinidad, are situated on this bay. That which 
is the larger, and the seat of government, is called the 
Port of Spain, and lies near to the northern horn. San 
Fernando, the other, which is surrounded by the finest 
sugar districts of the island, and which therefore devotes 
its best energies to the export of that article, is on the 
other side of the bay and near the other horn. 

The passages into the enclosed sea on either side are 
called the Bocas, or mouths. Those nearest to the delta 
of the Orinoco are the Serpent's mouths. The ordinary 



TRINIDAD. 



207 



approach from England or the other islands is by the other 
or more northern entrance. Here there are three passages, 
of which the middle is the largest one, the Boca Grande. 
That between the mainland and a small island is used by 
the steamers in fine weather, and is by far the prettiest. 
Through this, the Boca di Mona, or Monkey's mouth, we 
approached Port of Spain. These northern entrances are 
called the Dragon's mouths. What may be the nautical 
difference between the mouth of a dragon and that of a 
serpent I did not learn. 

On the mainland, that is the land of the main island, 
the coast is precipitous, but clothed to the very top with 
the thickest and most magnificent foliage. With an opera- 
glass one can distinctly see the trees coming forth from 
the sides of the rocks as though no soil were necessary for 
them, and not even a shelf of stone needed for their sup- 
port, And these are not shrubs, but forest trees, with 
grand spreading branches, huge trunks, and brilliant 
coloured foliage. The small island on the other side is 
almost equally wooded, but is less precipitous. Here, 
however, there are open glades, and grassy enclosures, 
which tempt one to wish that it was one's lot to lie there 
in the green shade and eat bananas and mangoes. This 
little island in the good old days, regretted by not a few, 
when planters where planters and slaves were slaves, pro- 
duced cotton up to its very hill-tops. Now I believe it 
yields nothing but the grass for a few cattle. 

Our steamer as she got well into the boca drew near 
to the shore of the large island, and as we passed along 
we had a succession of lovely scenes. Soft-green smiling 
nooks made themselves visible below the rocks, the very- 
spots for picnics. One could not but long to be there 
with straw hats and crinoline, pigeon pies and champagne 
baskets. There was one narrow shady valley, into which 
a creek of the sea ran up, that must have been made for 



208 Tl UN I DAD. 

such purposes, either for that, or for the less noisy joys of 
some Paul of Trinidad with his Creole Virginia. 

As we steamed on a little further we came to a whaling 
establishment. Ideas of whaling establishments naturally 
connect themselves with icebergs and the North Pole. 
But it seems that there arc races of whales as there are 
of men, proper to the tropics as well as to the poles ; and 
some of the former here render up their oily tributes. 
From the look of the place I should not say that the trade 
was flourishing. The whaling huts arc very picturesque, 
but do not say much for the commercial enterprise of the 
proprietors. 

From them we went on through many smaller islands 
to Port of Spain. This is a large town, excellently well 
laid out, with the streets running all at right angles to 
each other, as is now so common in new towns. The 
spaces have been prepared for a much larger population 
than that now existing, so that it is at present straggling, 
unfilled, and full of gaps. But the time will come, and 
that before long, when it will be the best town in the 
British West Indies. There is at present in Port of Spain 
a degree of commercial enterprise quite unlike the sleep- 
iness of Jamaica or the apathy of the smaller islands. 

I have now before me at the present moment of writing 
a debate which took place in the House of Commons the 
other day — it is only the other day as I now write — on a 
motion made by Mr. Buxton for a committee to inquire 
into the British West Indies ; and though somewhat afraid 
of being tedious on the subject "of immigration to these 
parts, I will say a few words as to this motion in as far as 
it affects not only Trinidad, but all those colonies. Of all 
subjects this is. the one that is of real importance to the 
West Indies ; and it may be expected that the sugar 
colonies will or will not prosper, as that subject is or is not 
understood by its rulers. 



TRINIDAD. 209 

I think I may assume that the intended purport of Mr. 
Buxton's motion was to throw impediments in the way 
of the immigration of Coolies into Jamaica, and that in 
making it he was acting as the parliamentary mouthpiece 
of the Anti-Slavery Society. The legislature of Jamaica 
has at length passed a law with the object of promoting 
this immigration, as it has been promoted at the Mauritius, 
and in a lesser degree in British Guiana and Trinidad ; 
but the Anti- Slavery Society have wished to induce the 
Crown to use its authority and abstain from sanctioning 
this law, urging that it will be injurious to the interests 
of the negro labourers. 

The ' peculiar institution ' of slavery is, I imagine, quite 
as little likely to find friends in England now as it was 
when the question of its abolition was so hotly pressed 
some thirty years since. And God forbid that I should 
use either the strength or the weakness of my pen in 
saying a word in favour of a system so abhorrent to the 
feelings of a Christian Englishman. But may we not say 
that that giant has been killed ? Is it not the case that 
the Anti-Slavery Society has done its work ? — has done 
its work at any rate as regards the British West Indies ? 
What should we have said of the Anti-Corn-Law League, 
had it chosen to sit in permanence after the repeal of the 
obnoxious tax, with the view of regulating the fixed price 
of bread ? 

Such is the attempt now being made by the Anti-Slavery 
Society with reference to the West Indian negroes. If 
any men are free, these men are so. They have been left 
without the slightest constraint or bond over them. In 
the sense in which they are free, no English labourer is 
free. In England a man cannot select whether he will 
work or whether he will let it alone. He, the poor 
Englishman, has that freedom which God seems to have 
intended as good for man ; but work he must. If he do 

P 



210 



TRINIDAD. 



not do so willingly, compulsion is in some sort brought to 
bear upon him. He is not free to be idle ; and I presume 
that no English philanthropists will go so far as to wish to 
endow him with that freedom. 

But that is the freedom which the negro has in Jamaica, 
which he still has in many parts of Trinidad, and which 
the Anti-Slavery Society is so anxious to secure for him. 
It — but no ; I will give the Society no monopoly of such 
honour. We, we Englishmen, have made our negroes 
free. If by further efforts we can do anything towards 
making other black men free — if we can assist in driving 
slavery from the earth, in God's name let us still be doing. 
Here may be scope enough for an Anti-Slavery Society. 
But I maintain that these men are going beyond their 
mark — that they are minding other than their own 
business, in attempting to interfere with the labour of 
the West Indian colonies. Gentlemen in the West Indies 
see at once that the Society is discussing matters which it 
has not studied, and that interests of the utmost import- 
ance to them are being played w r ith in the dark. 

Mr. Buxton grounded his motion on these two pleas : — 
Firstly, That the distress of the West Indian planters had 
been brought about by their own apathy and indiscretion. 
And secondly, That that distress was in course of relief, 
-—would quickly be relieved without any further special 
measures for its mitigation. I think that he was sub- 
stantially wrong in both these allegations. 

That there were apathetic and indiscreet planters — • 
that there were absentees whose property was not suffi- 
cient to entitle them to the luxury of living away from 
it, may doubtless have been true. But the tremendous 
distress which came upon these colonies fell on them in 
too sure a manner, with too sudden a blow, to leave any 
doubt as to its cause. Slavery was first abolished, and 
the protective duty on slave-grown sugar was then with- 

I 



TRINIDAD, 



211 



! drawn. The second measure brought down almost to 
nothing the property .of the most industrious as well as 
that of the most idle of the planters. Except in Bar- 
bados, where the nature of the soil made labour com- 
pulsory, where the negro could no more be idle and exist 
than the poor man can do in England, it became impos- 
sible to produce sugar with a profit on which the grower 
could live. It was not only the small men who fell, or 
they who may be supposed to have been hitherto living 
on an income raised to an unjustly high pitch. Ask 
the Gladstone family what proceeds have come from 
their Jamaica property since the protective duty was 
abolished. Let Lord Howard de Walden say how he has 
fared. 

Mr. Buxton has drawn a parallel between the state of 
Ireland at and after the famine and that of the West 
Indies at and after the fall in the price of sugar, of which 
I can by no means admit the truth. In the one case, that 
of Ireland, the blow instantly effected the remedy. A 
tribe of pauper landlords had grown up by slow degrees 
who, by their poverty, their numbers, their rapacity, and 
their idleness, had eaten up and laid waste the fairest 
parts of the country. Then came the potato rot, bringing 
after it pestilence, famine, and the Encumbered Estates 
Court ; and lo ! in three years the air was cleared, the 
cloud had passed away, and Ireland was again prosperous. 
Land bought at fifteen pounds the acre was worth thirty 
before three crops had been taken from it. The absentees 
to whom Mr. Buxton alludes were comparatively little 
affected. They were rich men whose backs were broad 
enough to bear the burden for a while, and they stood 
their ground. It is not their property which as a rule 
has changed hands, but that of the small, grasping, profit- 
rent landlords whose lives had been passed in exacting the 
last farthing of rent from the cottiers. When no farthing 

p 2 



212 



TKINIDAD. 



of rent could any longer be exacted, they went to the wall 
at once. 

There was nothing like this in the case of the West 
Indies. Indiscretion and extravagance there may have 
been. These are vices which will always be more or less 
found among men living with the thermometer at eighty 
in the shade. But in these colonies, long and painful 
efforts were made, year after year, to bear against the 
weight which had fallen on them. In the West Indies 
the blow came from man, and it was withstood on the 
whole manfully. In Ireland the blow came from God, 
and submission to it was instantaneous. 

Mr. Buxton then argues that everything in the West 
Indies is already righting itself, and that therefore nothing 
further need be done. The facts of the case exactly 
refute this allegation. The four chief of these colonies 
are Barbados, British Guiana, Trinidad, and Jamaica. 
In Barbados, as has been explained, there was no distress, 
and of course no relief has been necessary. In British 
Guiana and Trinidad very special measures have been taken. 
Immigration of Coolies to a great extent has been 
brought about — to so great an extent that the tide of 
human beings across the two oceans will now run on in 
an increasing current. But in Jamaica little or nothing 
has yet been done. And in Jamaica, the fairest, the 
most extensive, the most attractive of them all ; in 
Jamaica, of all the islands on God's earth the one most 
favoured by beauty, fertility, and natural gifts ; in 
Jamaica the earth can hardly be made to yield its natural 
produce. 

All this was excellently answered by Sir Edward Lyt- 
ton, who, whatever may have been his general merits as 
a Secretary of State, seems at any rate to have understood 
this matter. He disposed altogether of the absurdly 
erroneous allegations which had been made as to the 



TRINIDAD. 



213 



mortality of these immigrants on their passage. As is too 
usual in such cases arguments had been drawn from one 
or two specially unhealthy trips. Ninety-nine ships ride 
safe to port, while the hundredth unfortunately comes to 
grief. But we cannot on that account afford to dispense 
with the navigation of the seas. Sir Edward showed 
that the Coolies themselves — for the Anti- Slavery Society 
is as anxious to prevent this immigration on behalf of the 
Coolies, who in their own country can hardly earn two- 
pence a day, as it is on the part of the negroes, who could 
with ease, though they won't, earn two shillings a day — 
he showed that these Coolies, after having lived for a few 
years on plenty in these colonies, return to their own 
country with that which is for them great wealth. And 
he showed also that the present system — present as 
regards Trinidad, and proposed as regards Jamaica — of 
indenturing the immigrant on his first arrival is the only 
one to which we can safely trust for the good usage of 
the labo-urer. For the present this is clearly the case. 
When the Coolies are as numerous in these islands as the 
negroes — and that time will come — such rules and restric- 
tions will no doubt be withdrawn. And when these 
different people have learned to mix their blood — which 
in time will also come — then mankind will hear no more 
of a lack of labour, and the fertility of these islands will 
cease to be their greatest curse. 

I feel that I owe an apology to my reader for intro- 
ducing him to an old, forgotten, and perhaps dull de- 
bate. In England the question is one not generally of 
great interest. But here, in the West Indies, it is vital. 
The negro will never work unless compelled to do so ; 
that is, the negro who can boast of pure unmixed 
African blood. He is as strong as a bull, hardy as a mule, 
docile as a doer when conscious of a master — a salamander 
as regards heat. He can work without pain and without 



214 



TRINIDAD. 



annoyance. But he will never work as long as he can 
eat and sleep without it. Place the Coolie or Chinaman 
alongside of him, and he must work in his own defence. 
If he do not, he will gradually cease to have an existence. 

We are now speaking more especially of Trinidad. It 
is a large island, great portions of which are but very 
imperfectly known ; of which but comparatively a very 
small part has been cultivated. During the last eight 
or ten years, ten or twelve thousand immigrants, chiefly 
Coolies from Madras and Calcutta, have been brought 
into Trinidad, forming now above an eighth part of its 
entire population ; and the consequence has been that 
in two years, from 1855, namely, to 1857, its imports 
were increased by one-third, and its exports by two- 
thirds ! The difference is of course that between 
absolute distress and absolute prosperity. Such having 
hitherto been the result of immigration into Trinidad, 
such also having been the result in British Guiana, it 
does appear singular that men should congregate in 
Exeter Hall with the view of preventing similar immi- 
gration into Jamaica ! 

This would be altogether unintelligible were it not 
that similar causes have produced similar effects in so many 
other cases. Men cannot have enough of a good thing. 

Exactly the same process has taken place with refe- 
rence to criminals in England. Some few years since 
we ill used them, stowed them away in unwholesome holes, 
gave them bad food for their bodies and none for their 
minds, and did our best to send them devilwards rather 
than Godwards. Philanthropists have now remedied this, 
and we are very much obliged to them. But the philan- 
thropists will not be content unless they be allowed to 
pack all their criminals up in lavender. They must be 
treated not only as men, but much better than men of their 
own class who are not criminal. 



TRINIDAD. 



215 



In this matter of the negroes, the good thing is negro- 
protection, and our friends cannot have enough of that, 
The negroes in being slaves were ill used ; and now it is 
not enough that they should all be made free, but each 
should be put upon his own soft couch, with rose-leaves 
on which to lie. Xow your Sybarite negro, when closely 
looked at, is not a pleasing object. Distance may doubt- 
less lend enchantment to the view. 

As my sojourn in Trinidad did not amount to two 
entire days, I do not feel myself qualified to give a 
detailed description of the whole island. Very lew, I 
imagine, are so qualified, for much of it is unknown ; 
there is a great want of roads, and a large proportion of 
it has, I believe, never been properly surveyed. 

Immediately round Port of Spain the country is 
magnificent, and the views from the town itself are very 
lovely. Exactly behind the town, presuming the sea to 
be the front, is the Savanah, a large enclosed, park-like 
piece of common, the race-course and Hyde Park of 
Trinidad. I was told that the drive round it was three 
Endish miles in length ; but if it be so much, the little 
pony which took me that drive in a hired buggy must 
have been a fast trotter. 

On the further side of this lives the Governor of the 
island, immediately under the hills. When I was there 
the Governor's real house was being repaired, and the 
great man was living in a cottage hard by. AVere I that 
great man I should be tempted to wish that my great 
house might always be under repair, for I never saw a 
more perfect specimen of a pretty spacious cottage, open- 
ing as a cottage should do on all sides and in every direc- 
tion, with a great complexity as to doors and windows, 
and a delicious facility of losing one's way. And then 
the necessary freedom from boredom, etiquette, and 
Governor's grandeur, so hated by Governors themselves, 



216 



TRINIDAD. 



which must necessarily be brought about by such a resi- 
dence ! I could almost wish to be a Governor myself, if I 
might be allowed to live in such a cottage. 

On the other side of the Savanah nearest to the town, 
and directly opposite to those lovely hills, are a lot of villa 
residences, and it would be impossible, I imagine, to find 
a more lovely site in which to fix one's house. With the 
Savanah for a foreground, the rising gardens behind the 
Governor's house in the middle distance, and a panorama 
of magnificent hills in the back of the picture, it is 
hardly within the compass of a man's eye and imagination 
to add anything to the scene. I had promised to call 

on Major , who was then, and perhaps is still, in 

command of the detachment of white troops in Trinidad, 
and I found him and his young wife living in this spot. 

4 And yet you abuse Trinidad/ I said, pointing to the 
view. 

' Oh ! people can't live altogether upon views/ she 
answered ; 6 and besides, we have to go back to the 
barracks. The yellow fever is over now.' 

The only place at which I came across any vestiges of 
the yellow fever was at Trinidad. There it had been 
making dreadful havoc, and chiefly among the white 
soldiers. My visit was in March, and the virulence of 
the disease was then just over. It had been raging, there- 
fore, not in the summer but during the winter months. 
Indeed, as far as I could learn, summer and winter had 
very little to do with the matter. The yellow fever pays 
its visit in some sort periodically, though its periods 
are by no means understood. But it pays them at any 
time of the year that may suit itself. 

At this time a part of the Savanah was covered with 
tents, to which the soldiers had been moved out of their 
barracks. The barracks are lower down, near the shore, 
at a place called St. James, and the locality is said to be 



TKIXIDAD. 



217 



wretchedly unhealthy. At any rate, the men were stricken 
with fever there, and the proportion of them that died 
was very great. I believe, indeed, that hardly any 
recovered of those on whom the fever fell with any 
violence. They were then removed into these tents, 
and matters began to mend. They were now about to 
return to their barracks, and were, I was told, as un- 
willing to do so as my fair friend was to leave her pretty 
house. 

If it be necessary to send white troops to the West 
Indies — and I take it for granted that it is necessary — 
care at any rate should be taken to select for their 
barracks sites as healthy as may be found. It certainly 
seems that this has not been done at Trinidad. They 
are placed very low, and with hills immediately around 
them. The good effect produced by removing them to 
the Savanah — a very inconsiderable distance ; not, as I 
think, much exceeding a mile — proves what may be done 
by choosing a healthy situation. But why should not 
the men be taken up to the mountains, as has been done 
with the white soldiers in Jamaica? There they are 
placed in barracks some three or four thousand feet 
above the sea, and are perfectly healthy. This cannot 
be done in Barbados, for there are no mountains to 
which to take them. But in Trinidad it may be done, 
quite as easily, and indeed at a lesser distance, and there- 
fore with less cost for conveyance, than in Jamaica. 

At the first glance one would be inclined to say that 
white troops would not be necessary in the West Indies, 
as we have regiments of black soldiers, negroes dressed 
in Zouave costume, specially trained for the service ; but 
it seems that there is great difficulty in getting these 
regiments tilled. Why should a negro enlist any more 
than work? Are there not white men enough — men 
and brothers — to do the somewhat disagreeable work of 



218 



TRINIDAD. 



soldiering for him ? Consequently, except in Barbados, 
it is difficult to get recruits. Some men have been 
procured from the coast of Africa, but our philanthropy 
is interfering even with this supply. Then the recruit- 
ing officers enlisted Coolies, and these men made excel- 
lent soldiers; but when interfered with or punished, 
they had a nasty habit of committing suicide, a habit 
which it was quite possible the negro soldier might him- 
self assume; and therefore no more Coolies are to be 
enlisted. 

Under such circumstances white men must, I presume, 
do the work. A shilling a day is an object to them, and 
they are slow to blow out their own brains; but they 
should not be barracked in swamps, or made to live in an 
air more pestilential than necessary. 

My hostess, the lady to whom I have alluded, had been 
attacked most virulently by the yellow fever, and I had 
heard in the other islands that she was dead. Her case 
had indeed been given up as hopeless. 

On the morning after my arrival I took a ride of some 
sixteen miles through the country before breakfast, and 
the same lady accompanied me. 4 We must start very 
early,' she said, 4 so as to avoid the heat. I will have 
coffee at half-past four, and we will be on horseback at five.' 

I have had something to say as to early hours in the 
West Indies before, and hardly credited this. A morning 
start at five usually means half-past seven, and six o'clock 
is a generic term for moving before nine. So I meekly 
asked whether half-past four meant half-past four. 4 No/ 
said the husband. 4 Yes,' said the wife. So I went away 
declaring that I would present myself at the house at any 
rate not after five. 

And so I did, according to my own very excellent 
watch, which had been set the day before by the ship's 
chronometer. I rode up to the door two minutes before 



TKINIDAD. 



219 



five, perfectly certain that I should have the pleasure of 
watching the sun's early manoeuvres for at least an hour. 
But, alas ! my friend had been waiting for me in her 
riding-habit for more than that time. Our watches were 
frightfully at variance. It was perfectly clear to me that 
the Trinidadians do not take the sun for their guide as to 
time. But in such a plight as was then mine, a man 
cannot go into his evidence and his justification. My 
only plea was for mercy ; and I hereby take it on myself 
to say that I do not know that I ever kept any lady wait- 
ing before — except my wife. 

At five to the moment — by my watch — we started, 
and I certainly never rode for three hours through more 
lovely scenery. At first, also, it was deliciously cool, 
and as our road lay entirely through woods, it was in 
every way delightful. We went back into the hills, and 
returned again towards the sea-shore over a break in one 
of the spurs of the mountain called the Saddle; from 
whence we had a distant view into the island, as fine as 
any view I ever saw without the adjunct of water. 

I should imagine that a tour through the whole of 
Trinidad would richly repay the trouble, though, indeed, 
it would be troublesome. The tourist must take his own 
provisions, unless, indeed, he provided himself by means 
of his gun, and must take also his bed. The musquitoes, 
too, are very vexatious in Trinidad, though I hardly 
think that they come up in venom to their brethren in 
British Guiana. 

The first portion of our ride was delightful ; but on our 
return we came down upon a hot, dusty road, and then 
the loss of that hour in the morning was deeply felt. I 
think that up to that time I had never encountered such 
heat, and certainly had never met with a more disagree- 
able, troublesome amount of dust, all which would have 
been avoided had I inquired over-night into the circum- 



220 



TRINIDAD. 



stances of the Trinidad watches. But the lady said never 
a word, and so heaped coals of fire on my head in addition 
to the consuming flames of that ever-to-be-remembered 
sun. 

As Trinidad is an English colony, one's first idea is 
that the people speak English ; and one's second idea, 
when that other one as to the English has fallen to the 
ground, is that they should speak Spanish, seeing that the 
name of the place is Spanish. But the fact is that they 
all speak French ; and, out of the town, but few of the 
natives speak anything else. Whether a Parisian would 
admit this may be doubted ; but he would have to acknow- 
ledge that it was a French patois. 

And the religion is Eoman Catholic. The island of 
course did belong to France, and in manners, habits, 
language, and religion is still French. There is a 
Boman Catholic archbishop resident in Trinidad, who 
is, I believe, at present an Italian. We pay him, I have 
been told, some salary, which he declines to take for his 
own use, but applies to purposes of charity. There is a 
Boman Catholic cathedral in Port of Spain, and a very 
ugly building it is. 

The form of government also is different from that, or 
rather those, which have been adopted in the other West 
Indian colonies, such as Jamaica, Barbados, and British 
Guiana. As this was a conquered colony, the people of the 
island are not allowed to have so potent a voice in their 
own management. They have no House of Commons 
or Legislative Assembly, but take such rules or laws as 
may be necessary for their guidance direct from the 
Crown. The Governor, however, is assisted by a council, 
in which sit the chief executive officers in the island. 
That the fact of the colony having been conquered need 
preclude it from the benefit (?) of self-government, one 
does not clearly see. But one does see clearly enough, 



TBINIDAD. 



221 



that as they are French in language and habits, and 
Eoman Catholic in religion, they would make even a 
worse hash of it than the Jamaicans do in Jamaica. 

And it is devoutly to be hoped, for the island's sake, 
that it may be long before it is endowed with a constitu- 
tion. It would be impossible now-a-days to commence 
a legislature in the system of electing which all but 
white men should be excluded from voting. Nor would 
there be white men enough to carry on an election. And 
may Providence defend my friends there from such an 
assembly as would be returned by French negroes and 
hybrid mulattoes ! 

A scientific survey has just been completed of this 
island, with reference to its mineral productions, and the 
result has been to show that it contains a very large 
quantity of coal. I was fortunate enough to meet one of 
the gentlemen by whom this was done, and he was kind 
enough to put into my hand a paper showing the exact 
result of their investigation. But, unfortunately, the 
paper was so learned, and I was so ignorant, that I could 
not understand one word of it. The whole matter also 
was explained to me verbally, but not in language adapted 
to my child-like simplicity. So I am not able to say 
whether the coal be good or bad — whether it would make 
a nice, hot, crackling, Christmas fire, or fly away in slaty 
flakes and dirty dust. It is a pity that science cannot be 
made to recognise the depth of unscientific ignorance. 

There is also here in Trinidad a great pitch lake, of 
which all the world has heard, and out of which that in- 
defatigable old hero, Lord Dundonald, tried hard to make 
wax candles and oil for burning. The oil and candles, 
indeed, he did make, but not, I fear, the money which 
should have been consequent upon their fabrication. I 
have no doubt, however, that in time we shall all have 
our wax candles from thence ; for Lord Dundonald is one 



222 



TRINIDAD. 



of those men who are born to do great deeds of which 
others shall reap the advantages. One of these days his 
name will be duly honoured, for his conquests as well as 
for his candles. 

And so I speedily took my departure, and threaded my 
way back again through the Bocas, in that most horrid of 
all steam- vessels, the 6 Prince/ 



C 220 ) 



CHAPTER XV. 

ST. THOMAS. 

All persons travelling in the West Indies have so much 
to do with the island of St. Thomas, that I must devote a 
short chapter to it. My circumstances with reference to 
it were such that I was compelled to remain there a longer 
time, putting all my visits together, than in any other of the 
islands except Jamaica. 

The place belongs to the Danes, who possess also the 
larger and much more valuable island of Santa Cruz, as 
they do also the small island of St. Martin. These all 
lie among the Virgin Islands, and are considered as be- 
longing to that thick cluster. As St. Thomas at present 
exists, it is of considerable importance. It is an empo- 
rium, not only for many of the islands, but for many also 
of the places on the coast of South and Central America. 
Guiana, Venezuela, and New Granada, deal there largely. 
It is a depot for cigars, light dresses, brandy, boots, and 
Eau de Cologne. Many men therefore of many nations 
go thither to make money, and they do make it. These 
are men, generally not of the tenderest class, or who have 
probably been nursed in much early refinement. Few men 
will select St. Thomas as a place of residence from mere 
unbiassed choice and love of the locale. A wine merchant 
in London, doing a good trade there, would hardly give 
up that business with the object of personally opening an 



224 ST. THOMAS. 

establishment in this island : nor would a well-to-do milli- 
ner leave Paris with the same object. Men who settle 
at St. Thomas have most probably roughed it elsewhere 
unsuccessfully. 

These St. Thomas tradesmen do make money I believe, 
and it is certainly due to them that they should do so. 
Things ought not, if possible, to be all bad with any man ; 
and I cannot imagine what good can accrue to a man at 
St. Thomas if it be not the good of amassing money. 
It is one of the hottest and one of the most unhealthy 
spots among all these hot and unhealthy regions. I do 
not know whether I should not be justified in saying 
that of all such spots it is the most hot and the most 
unhealthy. 

I have said in a previous chapter that the people one 
meets there may be described as an Hispano-Dano-]Si iggery- 
Yankee-doodle population. In this I referred not only 
to the settlers, but to those also who are constantly passing 
through it. In the shops and stores, and at the hotels, one 
meets the same mixture. The Spanish element is of course 
strong, for Venezuela, New Granada, Central America, and 
Mexico are all Spanish, as also is Cuba. The people of 
these lands speak Spanish, and hereabouts are called 
Spaniards. To the Danes the island belongs. The sol- 
diers, officials, and custom-house people are Danes. They 
do not, however, mix much with their customers. They 
affect, I believe, to say that the island is overrun and 
destroyed by these strange comers, and that they would as 
lief be without such visitors. If they are altogether in- 
different to money making, such may be the case. The 
labouring people are all black — if these blacks can be called 
a labouring people. They do coal the vessels at about a 
dollar a day each — that is when they are so circumstanced 
as to require a dollar. As to the American element, that 
is by no means the slightest or most retiring. Dollars are 



ST. THOMAS. 



225 



going there, and therefore it is of course natural that 
Americans should be going also. I saw the other day a 
map, ' The United States as they now are, and in pro- 
spective ;' and it included all these places — Mexico, 
Central America, Cuba, St. Domingo, and even poor 
Jamaica. It may be that the man who made the map 
understood the destiny of his country; at any rate he 
understood the tastes of his countrymen. 

All these people are assembled together at St. Thomas, 
because St. Thomas is the meeting-place and central 
depot of the West Indian steam-packets. That reason 
can be given easily enough ; but why St. Thomas should 
be the meeting-place of these packets, — I do not know 
who can give me the reason for that arrangement. Tor- 
tola and Virgin Gorda, two of the Virgin islands, both 
belong to ourselves, and are situated equally well for the 
required purpose as is St. Thomas. I am told also, that 
at any rate one, probably at both, good harbour accommoda- 
tion is to be found. It is certain that in other respects 
they are preferable. They are not unhealthy, as is St. 
Thomas ; and, as I have said above, they belong to our- 
selves. My own opinion is that Jamaica should be the 
head-quarters of these packets ; but the question is one 
which will not probably be interesting to the reader of 
these pages. 

' They cannot understand at home why we dislike the 
inter-colonial work so much,' said the captain of one of 
the steam-ships to me. By inter-colonial work he meant 
the different branch services from St. Thomas. 6 They 
do not comprehend at home what it is for a man to be 
burying one young officer after another; to have them 
sent out, and then to see them mown down in that ac- 
cursed hole of a harbour by yellow fever. Such a work 
is not a very pleasant one.' 

Indeed this was true. The life cannot be a very plea- 

Q 



226 



ST. THOMAS. 



sant one. These captains themselves and their senior 
officers are doubtless acclimated. The yellow fever may 
reach them, but their chance of escape is tolerably good ; 
but the young lads who join the service, and who do so at 
an early age, have at the first commencement of their 
career to make St. Thomas their residence, as far as they 
have any residence. They live of course on board their 
ships ; but the peculiarity of St. Thomas is this, that the 
harbour is ten times more fatal than the town. It is that 
hole, up by the coaling wharves, which sends so many 
English lads to the grave. If this be so, this alone, I 
think, constitutes a strong reason why St. Thomas should 
not be so favoured. These vessels now form a consider- 
able fleet, and some of them spend nearly a third of their 
time at this place. The number of Englishmen so col- 
lected and endangered is sufficient to warrant us in regard- 
ing this as a great drawback on any utility which the 
island may have — if such utility there be. 

But we must give even the devil his due. Seen from 
the water St. Thomas is very pretty. It is not so much 
the scenery of the island that pleases as the aspect of the 
town itself. It stands on three hills or mounts, with 
higher hills, green to their summit, rising behind them. 
Each mount is topped by a pleasant, cleanly edifice, and 
pretty-looking houses stretch down the sides to the water's 
edge. The buildings do look pretty and nice, and as 
though chance had arranged them from a picture. Indeed, 
as seen from the harbour, the town looks like a panorama 
exquisitely painted. The air is thin and transparent, and 
every line shows itself clearly. As so seen the town of 
St. Thomas is certainly attractive. But it is like the Dead 
Sea fruit ; all the charm is gone when it is tasted. Land 
there, and the beauty vanishes, j 

The hotel at St. Thomas is quite a thing of itself. 
There is no fair ground for complaint as regards the 



ST. THOMAS. 



227 



accommodation, considering where one is, and that people 
do not visit St. Thomas for pleasure ; but the people that 
one meets there form as strange a collection as may per- 
haps be found anywhere. In the first place, all languages 
seem alike to them. One hears English, French, German, 
and Spanish spoken around one, and apparently it is 
indifferent which. The waiters seem to speak them all. 

The most of these guests I take it — certainly a large 
proportion of them — are residents of the place, who board 
at the inn, I have been there for a week at a time, and 
it seemed that all then around me were so. There were 
ladies among them, who always came punctually to their 
meals, and went through the long course of breakfast and 
long course of dinner with admirable perseverance. I 
never saw eating to equal that eating. When I was there 
the house was always full : but the landlord told me that 
he found it very hard to make money, and I can believe it. 

A hot climate, it is generally thought, interferes with 
the appetite, affects the gastric juices with lassitude, 
gives to the stomach some of the apathy of the body, and 
lessens at any rate the consumption of animal food. That 
charge cannot be made against the air of St. Thomas. To 
whatever sudden changes the health may be subject, no 
lingering disinclination for food affects it. Men eat there 
as though it were the only solace of their life, and women 
also. Probably it is so. 

They never talk at meals. A man and his wife may 
interchange a word or two as to the dishes ; or men coming 
from the same store may whisper a syllable as to their 
culinary desires ; but in an ordinary way there is no talk- 
ing. I myself generally am not a mute person at my 
meals : and having dined at sundry tables d'hote have 
got over in a great degree that disinclination to speak to 
my neighbour which is attributed — I believe wrongly — to 
Englishmen. But at St. Thomas I took it into my head 



228 



ST. THOMAS. 



to wait till I was spoken to, and for a week I sat, twice 
daily, between the same persons without receiving or speak- 
ing a single word. 

I shall not soon forget the stout lady who sat opposite to 
me, and who was married to a little hooked-nosed Jew, 
who always accompanied her. Soup, fish, and then meat 
is the ordinary rule at such banquets ; but here the fashion 
is for the guests, having curried favour with the waiters, 
to get their plates of food brought in and put round before 
them in little circles ; so that a man while taking his soup 
may contemplate his fish and his roast beef, his wing of 
fowl, his allotment of salad, his peas and potatoes, his 
pudding, pie, and custard, and whatever other good things 
a benevolent and well-fee'd waiter may be able to collect 
for him. This somewhat crowds the table, and occasionally 
it becomes necessary for the guest to guard his treasures 
with an eagle's eye ; — hers also with an eagle's eye, and 
sometimes with an eagle's talon. 

This stout lady was great on such occasions. 6 A bit of 
that,' she would exclaim, with head half turned round, as 
a man would pass behind her with a dish, while she was 
in the very act of unloading within her throat a whole 
knifeful charged to the hilt. The efforts which at first 
affected me as almost ridiculous advanced to the sublime 
as dinner went on. There was no shirking, no half mea- 
sures, no slackened pace as the breath became short. The 
work was daily done to the final half-pound of cheese. 

Cheese and jelly, guava jelly, were always eaten 
together. This I found to be the general fashion of St. 
Thomas. Some men dipped their cheese in jelly ; some 
ate a bit of jelly and then a bit of cheese ; some topped 
up with jelly and some topped up with cheese, all having 
it on their plates together. But this lady — she must 
have spent years in acquiring the exercise — had a knack 
of involving her cheese in jelly, covering up by a rapid 



ST. THOMAS. 



229 



twirl of her knife a bit about an inch thick, so that no 
cheesy surface should touch her palate, and then deposit- 
ing the parcel, oh, ever so far down, without dropping 
above a globule or two of the covering on her bosom. 

Her lord, the Israelite, used to fight hard too ; but the 
battle was always over with him long before the lady 
showed even a sign of distress. He was one of those 
flashy weedy animals that make good running for a few 
yards and are then choked off. She was game up to the 
winning-post. There were many animals running at 
those races, but she might have given all the others the 
odds of a pound of solid food, and yet have beaten them. 

But then, to see her rise from the table ! Well ; pace 
and extra weight together will distress the best horse 
that ever was shod ! 

Over and above this I found nothing of any general 
interest at St. Thomas. 



( 230 ) 



CHAPTER XVI. 

NEW GRANADA, AND THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 

It is probably known to all that New Granada is the 
most northern of the republics of South America; or it 
should rather be said that it is the state nearest to the 
isthmus, of which indeed it comprehends a considerable 
portion; the territory of the Gulf of Darien and the 
district of Panama all being within the limits of New 
Granada. 

It was, however, but the other day that New Granada 
formed only a part of the republic of Columbia, the 
republic of which Bolivar was the hero. As the inhabit- 
ants of Central America found it necessary to break up 
their state into different republics, so also did the people 
of Columbia. The heroes and patriots of Caracas and 
Quito could not consent to be governed from Bogota; and 
therefore three states were formed out of one. They are 
New Granada, with its capital of Bogota ; Venezuela, 
with its capital of Caracas, lying exactly to the east of 
New Granada; and Ecuador — the state, that is, of 
Equator — lying to the south of New Granada, having its 
seaport at Guayaquil on the Pacific, with Quito, its chief 
city, exactly on the line. 

The district of Columbia was one of the grandest 
appanages of the Spanish throne when the appanages of 
the Spanish throne were grand indeed. The town and 



NEW GRANADA, 



231 



port of Cartagena, on the Atlantic, were admirably 
fortified, as was also Panama on the Pacific. Its interior 
cities were populous, flourishing, and, for that age, fairly 
civilized. Now the whole country has received the boon 
of Utopian freedom ; and the mind loses itself in contem- 
plating to what lowest pitch of human degradation the 
people will gradually fall. 

Civilization here is retrograding. Men are becoming 
more ignorant than their fathers, are learning to read less, 
to know less, to have fewer aspirations of a high order ; 
to care less for truth and justice, to have more and more 
of the contentment of a brute, — that contentment which 
comes from a full belly and untaxed sinews ; or even from 
an empty belly, so long as the sinews be left idle. 

To what this will tend a prophet in these days can 
hardly see ; or rather none less than a prophet can pre- 
tend to see. That those lands which the Spaniards have 
occupied, and to a great extent made Spanish, should 
have no higher destiny than that which they have already 
accomplished, I can hardly bring myself to think. That 
their unlimited fertility and magnificent rivers should be 
given for nothing ; that their power of producing all that 
man wants should be intended for no use, I cannot believe. 
At present, however, it would seem that Providence has 
abandoned it. It is making no progress. Land that was 
cultivated is receding from cultivation ; cities that were 
populous are falling into ruins ; and men are going back 
into animals, under the influence of unlimited liberty and 
universal suffrage. 

In 1851 emancipation from slavery was finally esta- 
blished in New Granada ; and so far, doubtless, a good 
deed was done. But it was established at the same time 
that every man, emancipated slave or other, let him be 
an industrial occupier of land, or idle occupier of nothing, 
should have an equal vote in electing presidents and 



232 



NEW GRANADA, 



members of the Federal Congress, and members of the 
Congress of the different states ; that, in short, all men 
should be equal for all state purposes. And the result, 
as may be supposed, is not gratifying. As far as I am 
able to judge, a negro has not generally those gilts of God 
which enable one man to exercise rule and masterdom 
over his fellow-men. I myself should object strongly to 
be represented, say in the city of London, by any black 
man that I ever saw. 'The unfortunate nigger gone 
masterless,' whom Carlyle so tenderly commiserates, has 
not strong ideas of the duties even of self-government, 
much less of the government of others. Universal suffrage 
in such hands can hardly lead to .good results. Let him 
at any rate have first saved some sixty pounds in a 
savings bank, or made himself undoubted owner — an easy 
thing in New Granada — of a forty-shilling freehold ! 

Not that pure-blooded negroes are common through the 
whole of New Granada. At Panama and the adjacent 
districts they are so ; but in the other parts of the republic 
they are, I believe, few in number. At Santa Martha, 
where I first landed, I saw few, if any. And yet the 
trace of the negroes, the woolly hair and flat nose, were 
common enough, mixed always with Indian blood, and of 
course to a great extent with Spanish blood also. 

This Santa Martha is a wretched village — a city it is 
there called — at which we, with intense cruelty, maintain 
a British Consul, and a British post-office. There is a 
cathedral there of the old Spanish order, with the choir 
removed from the altar down towards the western door ; 
and there is, I was informed, a bishop. But neither 
bishop nor cathedral were in any way remarkable. There 
is there a governor of the province, some small tradesman, 
who seemed to exercise very few governing functions. 
It may almost be said that no trade exists in the place, 
which seemed indeed to be* nearly dead. A few black or 



AXD THE ISTHMUS OF PAXAMA. 



233 



nearly black children run about the streets in a state 
almost of nudity ; and there are shops, from the extre- 
mities of which, as I was told, crinoline and hats laden 
with bugles may be extracted. 

6 Every one of my predecessors here died of fever,' said 
the Consul to me, in a tone of triumph. What could a 
man say to him on so terribly mortal a subject ? 6 And 
my wife has been down in fever thirteen times !' 
Heavens, what a life ! That is, as long as it is life. 

I rode some four or five miles into the country to visit 
the house in which Bolivar died. It is a deserted little 
country villa or chateau, called San Pedro, standing in a 
farm-yard, and now containing no other furniture than a 
marble bust of the Dictator, with a few wretchedly 
coloured French prints with cracked glass plates. The 
bust is not a bad one, and seems to have a solemn and sad 
meaning in its melancholy face, standing there in its 
solitary niche in the very room in which the would-be 
liberator died. 

For Bolivar had grand ideas of freedom, though doubt- 
less he had grand ideas also of personal power and pre- 
eminence ; as has been the case with most of those who 
have moved or professed to move in the vanguard of 
liberty. To free mankind from all injurious thraldom is 
the aspiration of such men ; but who ever thought that 
obedience to himself was a thraldom that could be in- 
jurious ? 

And here in this house, on the 17th December, 1830, 
Bolivar died, broken-hearted, owing his shelter to charity, 
and relieved in his last wants by the hands of strangers to 
his country. When the breath was out of him and he 
was well dead, so that on such a matter he himself could 
probably have no strong wish in any direction, they took 
away his body, of course with all honour, to the district 
that gave him birth, and that could afford to be proud of 



234 



NEW GRANADA, 



him now that he was dead, — into Venezuela, and reburied 
him at Caracas. But dying poverty and funeral honours 
have been the fate of great men in other countries besides 
Columbia. 

6 And why did you come to visit such a region as this ?' 
asked Bolivar, when dying, of a Frenchman to whom in 
his last days he was indebted for much. ' For freedom,' 
said the Frenchman. ' For freedom P said Bolivar. 
' Then let me tell you that you have missed your mark 
altogether; you could hardly have turned in a worse 
direction.' 

Our ride from Santa Martha to the house had been 
altogether between bushes, among which we saw but 
small signs of cultivation. Bound the house I saw none. 
On my return I learnt that the place was the property of 
a rich man who possessed a large estate in its vicinity. 
6 But will nothing grow there ?' I asked. ' Grow there ! 
yes ; anything would grow there. Some years since the 
whole district was covered with sugar-canes.' But since 
the emancipation in 1851 it had become impossible to 
procure labour ; men could not be got to work ; and so 
bush had grown up, and the earth gave none of her 
increase ; except indeed where half-caste Indians squatted 
here and there, and made provision grounds. * 

I then went on to Cartagena. This is a much better 
town than Santa Martha, though even this is in its de- 
cadence. It was once a flourishing city, great in com- 
merce and strong in war. It was taken by the English, 
not however without signal reverses on our part, and by 
the special valour — so the story goes — of certain sailors 
who dragged a single gun to the summit of a high abrupt 
hill called the ' Papa,' which commands the town. If the 
thermometer stood in those days as high at Cartagena as 
it does now, pretty nearly through the whole of the year, 
hose sailors ought to have had the Victoria cross. But 



AND THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



235 



these deeds were done long years ago, in the time of 
Drake and his followers ; and Victoria crosses were then 
chiefly kept for the officers. 

The harbour at Cartagena is singularly circumstanced. 
There are two entrances to it, one some ten miles from the 
city and the other close to it. This nearer aperture was 
blocked up by the Spaniards, who sank ships across the 
mouth ; and it has never been used or usable since. The 
present entrance is very strongly fortified. The fortifica- 
tions are still there, bristling down to the water's edge : 
or they would bristle, were it not that all the guns have 
been sold for the value of the brass metal. 

Cartagena was hotter even than Santa Martha ; but the 
place is by no means so desolate and death-like. The 
shops there are open to the streets, as shops are in other 
towns. Men and women may occasionally be seen about 
the square ; and there is a trade,— in poultry if in nothing 
else. 

There is a cathedral here also, and I presume a bishop. 
The former is built after the Spanish fashion, and boasts 
a so-called handsome, large, marble pulpit. That it is 
large and marble, I confess ; but I venture to question its 
claims to the other epithet. There are pictures also in 
the cathedral ; of spirits in a state of torture certainly ; 
and if I rightly remember of beatified spirits also. But in 
such pictures the agonies of the damned always excite more 
attention and a keener remembrance than the ecstasies 
of the blest. I cannot say that the artist had come up 
either to the spirit of Fra Angelico, or to the strength of 
Orcagna. 

At Cartagena I encountered a family of native ladies 
and gentlemen, who were journeying from Bogota to 
Peru. Looking at the map, one would say that the route 
Irom Bogota to Buena-ventura on the Pacific was both easy 
and short. The distance as the crow flies — the condor I 



236 



NEW GKANADA, 



should perhaps more properly say — would not be much 
over two hundred miles. And yet this family, of whom 
one was an old woman, had come down to Cartagena, 
having been twenty days on the road, having from thence 
a long sea journey to the isthmus, thence the passage over 
it to Panama, and then the journey down the Pacific! 
The fact of course is that there are no means of transit in 
the country except on certain tracks, very few in num- 
ber ; and that even on these all motion is very difficult. 
Bogota is about three hundred and seventy miles from 
Cartagena, and the journey can hardly be made in less 
than fourteen days. 

From Cartagena I went on to the isthmus ; the Isthmus 
of Panama, as it is called by all the world, though the 
American town of Aspinwall will gradually become the 
name best known in connexion with the passage between 
the two oceans. 

This passage is now made by a railway which has been 
opened by an American company between the town of 
Aspinwall, or Colon, as it is called in England, and the 
city of Panama. Colon is the local name for this place, 
which also bears the denomination of Navy Bay in the 
language of sailors. But our friends from Yankee-land 
like to carry things with a high hand, and to have a 
nomenclature of their own. Here, as their energy and 
their money and their habits are undoubtedly in the ascen- 
dant, they will probably be successful ; and the place will 
be called Aspinwall in spite of the disgust of the New 
Granadians, and the propriety of the English, who choose 
to adhere to the names of the existing government of the 
country. 

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and 
Colon or Aspinwall will be equally vile however you may 
call it. It is a wretched, unhealthy, miserably situated 
6ut thriving little American town, created by and for the 



AXD THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



237 



railway and the passenger traffic which comes here both 
from Southampton and New York. That from New York 
is of course immensely the greatest, for this is at present 
the main route to San Francisco and California. 

I visited the place three times, for I passed over the 
isthmus on my way to Costa Pica, and on my return from 
that country I went again to Panama, and of course back 
to Colon. I can say nothing in its favour. My only 
dealing there was with a washerwoman, and I wish I 
could place before my readers a picture of my linen in the 
condition in which it came back from that artiste's hands. 
I confess that I sat down and shed bitter tears. In these 
localities there are but two luxuries of life, iced soda water 
and clean shirts. And now I was debarred from any true 
enjoyment of the latter for more than a fortnight. 

The Panama railway is certainly a great fact, as men 
now-a-days say when anything of importance is accom- 
plished. The necessity of some means of passing the 
isthmus, and the question as to the best means, has been 
debated since, I may say, the days of Cortes. Men have 
foreseen that it would become a necessity to the world that 
there should be some such transit, and every conceivable 
point of the isthmus has, at some period or by some nation, 
been selected as the best for the purpose. This railway is 
certainly the first that can be regarded as a properly organ- 
ized means of travelling ; and it may be doubted whether 
it will not remain as the best, if not the only permanent 
mode of transit. 

Very great difficulty was experienced in erecting this 
line. In the first place it was necessary that terms should 
be made with the government of the country through 
which the line should pass, and to effect this it was expe- 
dient to hold out great inducements. Among the chief ot 
these is an understanding that the whole line shall become 
the absolute property of the New Grranadian government 



238 



NEW GKANADA, 



when it shall have been opened for forty-nine years. But 
who can tell what government will prevail in New Granada 
in forty-nine years ? It is not impossible that the whole 
district may then be an outlying territory belonging to the 
United States. At any rate I should imagine that it is 
very far from the intention of the American company to 
adhere with rigid strictness to this part of the bargain. 
Who knows what may occur between this and the end of 
the century ? 

And when these terms were made there was great diffi- 
culty in obtaining labour. The road had to be cut through 
one continuous forest, and for the greater part of the way 
along the course of the Chagres river. Nothing cculd be 
more unhealthy than such work, and in consequence the 
men died very rapidly. The high rate of wages enticed 
many Irishmen here, but most of them found their graves 
amidst the works. Chinese were tried, but they were 
quite inefficacious for such labour, and when distressed 
had a habit of hanging themselves. The most useful men 
were to be got from the coast round Cartagena, but they 
were enticed thither only by very high pay. 

The whole road lies through trees and bushes of thick 
tropical growth, and is in this way pretty and interesting. 
But there is nothing wonderful in the scenery, unless to 
one who has never before witnessed tropical forest scenery. 
The growth here is so quick that the strip of ground closely 
adjacent to the line, some twenty yards perhaps on each 
side, has to be cleared of timber and foliage every six 
months. If left for twelve months the whole would be 
covered with thick bushes, twelve feet high. At intervals 
of four and a half miles there are large wooden houses — 
pretty-looking houses they are, built with much taste, — 
in each of which a superintendent with a certain number 
of labourers resides. These men are supplied with pro- 
visions find all necessaries by the company. For there 



AND THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



239 



are no villages here in which workmen can live, no shops 
from which they can supply themselves, no labour which 
can be hired as it may be wanted, 

From this it may be imagined that the line is main- 
tained at a great cost. But, nevertheless, it already pays 
a dividend of twelve and a half per cent. So much at 
least is acknowledged ; but those who pretend to under- 
stand the matter declare that the real profit accruing to 
the shareholders is hardly less than five-and-twenty per 
cent. The sum charged for the passage is extremely high, 
being twenty-five dollars, or five pounds for a single ticket. 
The distance is under fifty miles. And there is no class 
but the one. Everybody passing over the isthmus, if he 
pay his fare, must pay twenty-five dollars. Steerage pas- 
sengers from New York to San Francisco are at present 
booked through for fifty dollars. This includes their food 
on the two sea voyages, which are on an average of about 
eleven days each. And yet out of this fifty dollars twenty- 
five are paid to the railway for this conveyance over fifty 
miles ! The charge for luggage, too, is commensurately 
high. The ordinary kit of a travelling Englishman— a 
portmanteau, bag, desk, and hat-box — would cost two 
pounds ten shillings over and above his own fare. 

But at the same time nothing can be more liberal than 
the general management of the line. On passengers jour- 
neying from New York to California, or from Southampton 
to Chili and Peru, their demand no doubt is very high. 
But to men of all classes, merely travelling from Aspinwall 
to Panama for pleasure — or, apparently, on business, if 
travelling only between those two places, — free tickets 
are given almost without restriction. One train goes each 
way daily, and as a rule most of the passengers are carried 
free, except on those days when packets have arrived at 
either terminus. On my first passage over I paid my 
fare, for I went across with other passengers out of the 



240 



NEW GKANADA, 



mail packet. But on my return the superintendent not 
only gave me a ticket, but asked me whether I wanted 
others for any friends. The line is a single line through- 
out. 

Panama has doubtless become a place of importance to 
Englishmen and Americans, and its name is very familiar 
to our ears. But nevertheless it is a place whose glory has 
passed away. It was a large Spanish town, strongly forti- 
fied, with some thirty thousand inhabitants. Now its forti- 
fications are mostly gone, its churches are tumbling to the 
ground, its old houses have so tumbled, and its old Spanish 
population has vanished. It is still the chief city of a 
State, and a congress sits there. There is a governor and 
a judge, and there are elections; but were it not for the 
passengers of the isthmus there would soon be but little 
left of the city of Panama. 

Here the negro race abounds, and among the common 
people the negro traits are stronger and more marked than 
those either of the Indians or Spaniards. Of Spanish 
blood among the natives of the surrounding country there 
seems to be but little. The negroes here are of course 
free, free to vote for their own governors, and make their 
own laws ; and consequently they are often very trouble- 
some, the country people attacking those in the town, and 
so on. 6 And is justice ultimately done on the offenders ?' j 
I asked. ' Well, sir, perhaps not justice. But some i 
notice is taken, and the matter is smoothed over.' Such 
was the answer. 

There is a Spanish cathedral here also, in which I 
heard a very sweet-toned organ, and one magnificent tenor 
voice. The old church buildings still standing here are 
not without pretence, and are interesting from the dark 
tawny colour of the stone, if from no other cause. I 
should guess them to be some two centuries old. Their 
style in many respects resembles that which is so generally 



AND THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. 



241 



odious to an Englishman's eye and ear, under the title of 
Renaissance. It is probably an offshoot of that which is 
called Plateresque in the south of Spain. 

During the whole time that I was at Panama the ther- 
mometer stood at something above ninety. In Calcutta I 
believe it is often as high as one hundred and ten, so that 
I have no right to speak of the extreme heat. But, never- 
theless, Panama is supposed to be one of the hottest places 
in the western world; and I was assured, while there, 
that weather so continuously hot for the twenty-four hours 
had not been known during the last nine years. The 
rainy season should have commenced by this time — the 
early part of May. But it had not done so ; and it ap- 
peared that when the rain is late, that is the hottest period 
of the whole year. ^ 

The heat made me uncomfortable, but never made me 
ill. I lost all pleasure in eating, and indeed in everything 
else. I used to feel a craving for my food, but no appe- 
tite when it came. I was lethargic, as though from re- 
pletion, when I did eat, and was always glad when my 
watch would allow me to go to bed. But yet I was 
never ill. 

The country round the town is pretty and very well 
adapted for riding. There are large open savanahs which 
stretch away for miles and miles, and which are kept as 
grazing-farms for cattle. These are not flat and plain, 
but are broken into undulations, and covered here and 
, there with forest bushes. The horses here are taught to 
! pace, that is, move with the two off legs together and then 
'with the two near legs. The motion is exceedingly 
gentle, and well fitted for this hot climate, in which the 
rougher work of trotting would be almost too much for 
the energies of debilitated mankind. The same pace is 
common in Cuba, Costa Rica, and other Spanish countries 
'in the west. 



242 



NEW GEANADA, ETC. 



Off from Panama, a few miles distant in the western 
ocean, there are various picturesque islands. On two of 
these are the depots of two great steam-packet companies, 
that belonging to the Americans, which carries on the 
trade to California, and an English company whose vessels 
run down the Pacific to Peru and Chili. I visited 
Toboga, in which are xhe head-quarters of the latter. 
Here I found a small English maritime colony, with a 
little town of their own, composed of captains, doctors, 
engineers, officers, artificers, and sailors, living together 
on the company's wages, and as regards the upper classes, 
at tables provided by the company. But I saw there no 
women of any description. I beg therefore to suggest to 
the company that their servants would probably be much 
more comfortable if the institution partook less of the 
monastic order. 

If, as is probable, this becomes one of the high-roads to 
Australia, then another large ship company will have to 
fix its quarters here. 



( 243 ) 



CHAPTER XVIL 

CENTRAL AMERICA — PANAMA TO SAN JOs£. 

1 HAD intended to embark at Panama in the American 
steam-ship c Columbus 9 for the coast of Central America. 
In that case I should have gone to San Juan del Sur, a 
port in Nicaragua, and made my way from thence across 
the lake, down the river San Juan to San Juan del Is orte, 
now called Grreytown, on the Atlantic. But I learnt that 
the means of transit through Nicaragua had been so utterly 
destroyed — as I shall by-and-by explain— that I should 
encounter great delay in getting across the lake ; and as I 
found that one of our men-of-war steamers, the 4 Vixen,' 
was immediately about to start from Panama to Punta- 
arenas, on the coast of Costa Pica, I changed my mind 3 
and resolved on riding through Costa Pica to Grey town. 
And accordingly I did ride through Costa Rica. 

My first work was to make petition for a passage in the 
' Vixen,' which was accorded to me without difficulty. 
But even had I failed here I should have adhered to the 
same plan. The more I heard of Costa Pica, the more I 
was convinced that that republic was better worth a visit 
than Nicaragua. At this time I had in my hands a 
pamphlet written by M. Belly, a Frenchman, who is, or 
says that he is, going to make a ship canal from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. According to him the only Para- 

R 2 



244- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



disc now left oa earth is in this republic of Costa Rica. 
So I shipped myself on board the 6 Vixen.' 

I had never before been on the waters of the Pacific. 
Now when one premeditates one's travels, sitting by the 
domestic fireside, one is apt to think that all those ad- 
vancing steps into new worlds will be taken with some 
little awe, some feeling of amazement at finding oneself in 
very truth so far distant from Hyde Park Corner. The 
Pacific! I was absolutely there, on the ocean in which 
lie the Sandwich Islands, Queen Pomare, and the Canni- 
bals ! But no ; I had no such feeling. My only solicitude 
was whether my clean shirts would last me on to the 
capital of Costa Pica, 

And in travelling these arc the things which really 
occupy the mind. Where shall I sleep ? Is there any- 
thing to eat ? Can I have my clothes washed ? At 
Panamd [ did have my clothes washed in a very short 
space of time ; but I had to pay a shilling apiece for them 
all round. In all these ports, in New Granada, Central 
America, and even throughout the West Indies, the 
luxury which is the most expensive in proportion to its 
cost in Europe is the washing of clothes — the most expen- 
sive, as it is also the most essential. 

But I must not omit to say that before shipping myself 
in the c Vixen ' I called on the officers on board the United 
States frigate 'Merrimac,' and was shown over that vessel. 
I am not a very good judge of ships, and can only say 
that the officers were extremely civil, the sherry very 
good, and the guns very large. They were coaling, the 
captain told me, and he professed to be very much ashamed 
of the dirt. Had L not been told so I should not have 
known that the ship was dirty. 

The ' Merrimac,' though rated only as a frigate, having 
guns on one cowered deck only, is one of their largest 
men-of-war^ and has been regarded by them, and by us, 



PANAMA TO SAX JOSE. 



245 



as a sliow vessel. But according to their own account, 
she fails altogether as a steamer. The greatest pace her 
engines will give is seven knots an hour ; and this is felt 
to be so insufficient for the wants of the present time, that 
it is intended to take them out of her and replace them 
by a new set as soon as an opportunity will allow r . This 
will be done, although the vessel and the engines are new. 
I mention this, not as reflecting in any w r ay disgracefully 
on the dockyard from whence she came ; but to show that 
our Admiralty is not the only one which may have to 
chop and change its vessels after they are built. We hear 
much — too much perhaps — of the misfortunes which attend 
our own navy ; but of the misfortunes of other navies we 
hear very little. It is a pity that we cannot have some 
record of all the blunders committed at Cherbourg. 

The 4 Merrimac ' carries the flag of Flag-officer Long, 
on whom also we called. He is a fine old gentleman, with 
a magnificent head and forehead, looking I should say 
much more like an English nobleman than a Yankee 
sailor. Flag-officer Long ! Who will explain to us w T hy 
the Americans of the United States should persist in call- 
ing their senior naval officers by so awkw T ard an appella- 
tion, seeing that the well-known and well-sounding title 
of admiral is very much at their disposal ? 

When I returned to the shore from the c Merrimac/ I 
had half an hour to pack before I again started for the 
* Vixen.' As it would be necessary that 1 should return 
to Panama, and as whatever luggage I now took with me 
would have to be carried through the whole of Costa Paca 
on mules' backs, it became expedient that I should leave 
the greater part of my kit behind me. Then came the 
painful task of selection, to be carried out with the ther- 
mometer at ninety, and to be completed in thirty minutes ! 
To go or not to go had to be asked and answered as to 
3very shirt and pair of trousers. Oh, those weary clothes [ 



246 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



If a man could travel as a dog, liow delightful it would be 
to keep moving from year's end to year's end ! 

We steamed up the coast for two days quietly, placidly, 
and steadily. I cannot say that the trip was a pleasant 
one, remembering how intense was the heat. On one 
occasion we stopped for practice-shooting, and it behoved 
me of course to mount the paddle-box and see what was 
going on. This was at eleven in the morning, and though 
it did not last for above an hour, I was brought almost to 
fainting by the power of the sun. 

Punta-arenas — Sandy Point — is a small town and har- 
bour situated in Costa Eica, near the top of the Bay of 
Nicoya. The sail up the bay is very pretty, through 
almost endless woods stretching away from the shores to 
the hills. There is, however, nothing majestic or grand 
about the scenery here. There are no Andes in sight, no 
stupendous mountains such as one might expect to see 
after coming so far to see them. It is all pretty, quiet, and 
ordinary ; and on the whole perhaps superior to the views 
from the sea at Heme Bay. 

The captain of the ' Vixen 9 had decided on going up to 
San Jose with me, as at the last moment did also the 
master, San Jose being the capital of Costa Eica. Our 
first object therefore was to hire a guide and mules, which, 
with the assistance of the acting English consul, we soon 
found. For even at Punta-arenas the English flag flies, 
and a distressed British subject can claim protection. 

It is a small village lying along a creek of the sea, 
inside the sandy point from whence it is named. Con- 
siderable business is done here in the exportation of coffee, 
which is the staple produce of Costa Eica. It is sent 
chiefly to England ; but it seemed to me that the money- 
making inhabitants of Punta-arenas were mostly Ameri- 
cans ; men who either had been to California or who had 
.got so far on their road thither and then changed their 



PANAMA TO SAN JOSE. 



247 



minds. It is a hot, dusty, unattractive spot, with a 
Yankee inn, at which men may ' liquor,' and a tram rail- 
road running for twelve miles into the country. It abounds 
in oysters and beer, on which we dined before we started 
on our journey. 

I was thus for the first time in Central America. This 
continent, if it may be so called, comprises the five repub- 
lics of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, 
and Costa Eica, When this country first broke away from 
Spanish rule in 1821, it was for a while content to exist 
as one state, under the name of the Eepublic of Guate- 
mala ; as it had been known for nearly three hundred 
years as a Spanish province under the same denomination 
— that of Guatemala. After a hard tussle with Mexico, 
which endeavoured to devour it, and which forty years 
ago was more prone to annex than to be annexed, this 
republic sat itself fairly going, with the city of Guatemala 
for its capital. But the energies and ambition of the dif- 
ferent races comprised among the two million inhabitants 
of Central America would not allow them to be governed 
except each in its own province. Some ten years since, 
therefore, the five States broke asunder. Each claimed 
to be sovereign and independent. Each chose its own 
president and had its own capital ; and consequently, as 
might be expected, no part of the district in question has 
been able to enjoy those natural advantages with which 
Providence has certainly endowed it. To these States 
must be added, in counting up the countries of Central 
America, British Honduras, consisting of Belize and the 
adjacent district, and the Mosquito coast which so lately 

was under British protection ; and which is . But 

here I must be silent, or I may possibly trench upon diplo- 
matic subjects still unsettled. 

My visit was solely to Costa Eica, which has in some 
respects done better than its neighbours. But this has 



248 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

been owing to the circumstances of its soil and climate 
rather than to those of its government, which seems to me 
to be as bad as any can be which deserves that name. In 
Costa Eica there certainly is a government, and a very 
despotic one it is. 

I am not much given to the sins of dandyism, but I 
must own I was not a little proud of my costume as I left 
Punta-arenas. We had been told that according to the 
weather our ride would be either dusty or muddy in no 
ordinary degree, and that any clothes which we might 
wear during the journey would be utterly useless as soon 
as the journey was over. Consequently we purchased for 
ourselves, in an American store, short canvas smock-frocks 
which would not come below the saddle, and coarse holland 
trousers. What class of men may usually wear these gar- 
ments in Costa Eica I cannot say ; but in England I have 
seen navvies look exactly as my naval friends looked ; and 
I flatter myself that my appearance was quite equal to 
theirs. I had procured at Panama a light straw hat, with 
an amazing brim, and had covered the whole with white 
calico. I have before said that my beard had become 
6 poblada,' so that on the whole I was rather gratified than 
otherwise when 1 was assured by the storekeeper that we 
should certainly be taken for three filibusters. Now the 
name of filibuster means something serious in those locali- 
ties, as I shall in a few pages have to explain. 

We started on our journey by railroad, for there is a 
tramway that runs for twelve miles through the forest. 
We were dragged along on this by an excellent mule till 
our course was suddenly impeded by a tree which had 
fallen across the road. But in course of time this was re- 
moved, and in something less than three hours we found 
ourselves at a saw-mill in the middle of the forest. 

The first thing that met my view on stepping out of the 
truck was a solitary Englishman seated on a half-sawn log 



PANAMA TO SAN JOSE. 



249 



of wood. Those who remember Hood's Whims and Oddi- 
ties may bear in mind a heartrending picture of the last 
man. Only that the times do not agree, I should have 
said that this poor fellow must have sat for the picture, 
He was undeniably an English labourer. No man of any 
other nation would have had that face, or worn those 
clothes, or kicked his feet about in that same awkward, 
melancholy humour. 

He was, he said, in charge of the saw -mill, having been 
induced to come out into that country for three years. 
According to him, it was a wretched, miserable place. 
6 No man,' he said, ' ever found himself in worse diggings.' 
He earned a dollar and a half a day, and w T ith that he 
could hardly buy shoes and have his clothes washed. 
6 Why did he not go home ?' I asked. 8 Oh, he had come 

, for three years, and he'd stay his three years out — if so be 
he didn't die.' The saw-mill was not paying, he said ; 
and never would pay. So that on the whole his account 
of Costa Eica was not encouraging. 

We had been recommended to stay the first night at a 
place called Esparza, where there is a decent inn. But 
before we left Punta-arenas we learnt that Don Juan 
Eafael Mora, the President of the Eepublic, was coming 
down the same road with a large retinue of followers to 
inaugurate the commencement of the works of the canal- 
He would be on his way to meet his brother-president of 
the next republic, Nicaragua, at San Juan del Sur ; and 
at a spot some little distance from thence this great work 

; was to be begun at once. He and his party were to sleep 

\ at Esparza. Therefore we decided on going on further 
before we halted ; and in truth at that place we did meet 

; Don Juan and his retinue. 

As both Costa Eica and Nicaragua are chiefly of im- 
portance to the eastern and western worlds, as being the 
district in which the isthmus between the two Americas 



250 



CENTKAL AMEKICA. 



may be most advantageously pierced by a canal — -if it be 
ever so pierced— this subject naturally intrudes itself into 
all matters concerning these countries. Till the opening 
of the Panama railway the transit of passengers through 
Nicaragua was immense. At present the railway has it 
all its own way. But the subject, connected as it has 
been with that of filibustering, mingles itself so completely 
with all interests in Costa Rica, that nothing of its 
present doings or politics can be well understood till some- 
thing is understood on this canal subject. Sooner or later 
I must write a chapter on it ; and it would almost be well 
if the reader would be pleased to take it out of its turn 
and get through it at once. The chapter, however, can- 
not well be brought in till these, recording my travels in 
Costa Rica, are completed. 

Don Juan Mora and his retinue had arrived some hours 
before us, and had nearly filled the little hotel. This was 
kept by a Frenchman, and as far as provisions and beer 
were concerned seemed to be well kept. Our require- 
ments did not go beyond these. On entering the public 
sitting-room a melodiously rich Irish brogue at once 
greeted my ears, and I saw seated at the table, joyous in 
a semi-military uniform, The 0' Gorman Mahon, great as 
in bygone unemancipated days, when with head erect and 
stentorian voice he would make himself audible to half the 
County Clare. The head was still as erect, and the 
brogue as unexceptionable. 

He speedily introduced us to a brother- workman in the 
same mission, the Prince Polignac. With the President 
himself I had not the honour of making acquaintance, for 
he speaks only Spanish, and my tether in that language is 
unfortunately very short. But the captain of the ( Vixen ' 
was presented to him. He seemed to be a courteous little 
gentleman, though rather flustered by the magnitude of 
the work on which he was engaged. 



PANAMA TO SAN JOSE. 



251 



There was something singular in the amalgamation of 
the three men who had thus got themselves together in 
this place to do honour to the coming canal. The Presi- 
dent of the Kepublic, Prince Polignac, and The O'Gor- 
man Mahon ! I could not but think of the heterogeneous 
heroes of the 6 Groves of Blarney.' 

1 There were Nicodemus, and Polyphemus, 
Oliver Cromwell, and Leslie Foster.'* 

' And now, boys, ate a bit of what's going, and take a 
dhrop of dhrink,' said The O'Grorman, patting us on the 
shoulders with kind patronage. We did as we were bid, 
ate and drank, paid the bill, and went our way rejoicing. 
That night, or the next morning rather, at about 2 AM., 
we reached a wayside inn called San Mateo, and there 
rested for five or six hours. That we should obtain any 
such accommodation along the road astonished me, and of 
such as we got we were very glad. But it must not be 
supposed that it was of a very excellent quality. We 
found three bedsteads in the front room into which the 
door of the house opened. On these were no mattresses, 
not even a palliasse. They consisted of flat boards sloping 
away a little towards the feet, with some hard substance 
prepared for a pillow. In the morning we got a cup of 
coffee without milk. For these luxuries and for pastur- 
age for the mules we paid about ten shillings a head. 
Indeed, everything of this kind in Costa Pica is exces- 
sively dear. 

Our next day's journey was a very long one, and to 
my companions very fatiguing, for they had not latterly 
been so much on horseback as had been the case with 
myself. Our first stage before breakfast was of some five 
hours' duration, and from the never-ending questions put 

* I am not quoting the words rightly, I fear ; but the selection in 
the true song is miscellaneous in the same degree. 



252 



CENTRAL AMERICA, 



to the guide as to the number of remaining leagues, it 
seemed to be eternal. The weather also was hot, for we 
had not yet got into the high lands ; and a continued seat 
of five hours on a mule, under a burning sun, is not re- 
freshing to a man who is not accustomed to such exercise ; 
and especially is not so when he is unaccustomed to the 
half- trotting, half-pacing steps of the beast. The Spaniard 
sits in the saddle without moving, and generally has his 
saddle well stuffed and padded, and then covered with a 
pillion. An Englishman disdains so soft a seat, and en- 
deavours to rise in his stirrup at every step of the mule, 
as he would on a trotting horse at home. In these His- 
pano- American countries this always provokes the ridicule 
of the guide, who does not hesitate to tell the poor wretch 
who is suffering in his pillory that he does not know how 
to ride. 

With some of us the pillory was very bad, and I feared 
for a time that we should hardly have been able to mount 
again after breakfast. The place at which we were is 
called Atenas, and I must say in praise of this modern 
Athens, and of the three modern Athenian girls who 
waited on us, that their coffee, eggs, and grilled fowl were 
very good. The houses of these people are exceedingly 
dirty, their modes of living comfortless and slovenly in 
the extreme. But there seems to be no lack of food, and 
the food is by no means of a bad description. Along this 
road from Punta-arenas to San Jose we found it always 
supplied in large quantities and fairly cooked. The 
prices demanded for it were generally high. But then 
all prices are high ; and it seems that, even among the 
poorer classes, small sums of money are not valued as with 
us. There is no copper coin. Half a rial, equal to about 
threepence, is the smallest piece in use. A handful of 
rials hardly seems to go further, or to be thought more of, 
than a handful of pence with us ; and a dollar, eight rials, 



PANAMA TO SAN JOSE. 



253 



ranks hardly higher in estimation than a shilling does in 
England. 

At last, by the gradual use of the coffee and eggs, and 
by the application, external and internal, of a limited 
amount of brandy, the outward and the inward men were 
recruited ; and we once more found ourselves on the 
backs of our mules, prepared for another stage of equal 
duration. These evils always lessen as we become more 
accustomed to them, so that when we reached a place 
called Assumption, at which we were to rest for the night, 
we all gallantly informed the muleteer that we were pre- 
pared to do another stage. 6 Not so the mules,' said the 
muleteer; and as his w r ords were law, we prepared to 
spend the night at Assumption. 

Our road hitherto had been rising nearly the whole 
way, and had been generally through a picturesque coun- 
try. We ascended one long severe hill, severe that is as a 
road, though to a professed climber of mountains it would 
be as nothing. From the summit of this hill we had a 
magnificent view down to the Pacific. Again, at a sort 
of fortress through which we passed, and which must have 
been first placed there by the old Spaniards to guard the 
hill-passes, we found a very lovely landscape looking down 
into the valley. Here some show of a demand was made 
for passports ; but we had none to exhibit, and no oppo- 
sition was made to our progress. Except at these two 
places, the scenery, which was always more or less pretty, 
was never remarkable. And even at the two points 
named there was nothing to equal the mountain scenery 
of many countries in Europe. 

What struck me most was the constant traffic on the 
road or track over which we passed. I believe I may call 
it a road, for the produce of the country is brought down 
over it in bullock carts ; and I think that in South Wales 
I have taken a gig over one very much of the same 



254 



CENTKAL AMEEICA. 



description. But it is extremely rude ; and only fit for 
solid wooden wheels — circles, in fact, of timber — such as 
are used, and for the patient, slow step of the bullocks. 

But during the morning and evening hours the strings 
of these bullock carts were incessant. They travel from 
four till ten, then rest till three or four, and again proceed 
for four or five hours in the cool of the evening. They 
are all laden with coffee, and the idea they give is, that 
the growth of that article in Costa Rica must be much 
more than sufficient to supply the whole world. For 
miles and miles we met them, almost without any interval. 
Coffee, coffee, coffee : coffee, coffee, coffee ! It is grown 
in large quantities, I believe, only in the high lands of 
San Jose ; and all that is exported is sent down to Punta- 
arenas, though by travelling this route it must either pass 
across the isthmus railway at a vast cost, or else be carried 
round the Horn. At present half goes one way and half 
the other. But not a grain is carried, as it should all be 
carried, direct to the Atlantic. When I come to speak of 
the road from San Jose to Greytown, their post on the 
Atlantic, the reason for thiswill be understood. 

The bivouacs made on the roadside by the bullock 
drivers for their night and noon accommodation are very 
picturesque when seen filled by the animals. A piece of 
flat ground is selected by the roadside, about half an acre 
in size, and close to a river or some running water. Into 
this one or two hundred bullocks are taken, and then 
released from their carts. But they are kept yoked 
together to prevent their straying. Here they are fed 
exclusively on sugar-canes, which the men carry with 
them, and buy along the road. The drovers patiently cut 
the canes up with their knives, and the beasts patiently 
munch them. Neither the men nor the animals roar, as 
they would with us, or squabble for the use of the water- 
course, or curse their own ill luck or the good luck of 



PANAMA TO SAN JOSE. 



255 



their neighbours. Drivers and driven are alike orderly, 
patient, and slow, spending their lives in taking coffee 
down to Punta-arenas, and in cutting and munching thou- 
sands of sugar-canes. 

We passed some of those establishments by moonlight, 
and they looked like large crowded fairs full of low small 
booths. The men, however, do not put up tents, but 
sleep out in their carts. 

They told me that the soil in Costa Pica was very 
favourable to the sugar-cane, and I looked out to see some 
sugar among the coffee. But not a hogshead came that 
way. We saw patches of the cane growing by the road- 
side ; but no more was produced than what sufficed for 
the use of the proprietor himself, and for such sale as the 
traffic on the road afforded. Indeed, I found that they, do 
not make sugar, so called, in Costa Rica, but import what 
they use. The article fabricated is called by them 
c dulce.' It comes from their hands in ugly round brown 
lumps, of the consistency of brick, looking, in truth, much 
more like a large brickbat than any possible saccharine 
arrangement. Nevertheless, the canes are fairly good, 
and the juice as sweet as that produced in first-rate sugar- 
growing soils. 

It seemed that the only use made of this 6 dulce,' ex- 
cepting that of sweetening the coffee of the peasants, is for 
distillation. A spirit is made from it at San Jose, called 
by the generic name of aguardiente ; and this doubtless 
would give considerable impulse to the growth of sugar- 
canes but for a little law made on the subject by the 
present President of the republic. The President him- 
self is a cane-grower, and by this law it is enacted that 
the only person in Costa Rica entitled to supply the 
distillery with dulce shall be Don Juan Mora. Now, 
Don Juan Mora is the President. 

Before I left the country I came across an American 



256 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



who was desirous of settling there with the view of pro- 
ducing cocoa. ' Well,' said I, 6 and what do you think 
of it?' 

6 Why, I like the diggings/ said he ; ' and guess I 
could make things fix well enough. But suppose the 
President should choose to grow all the cocoa as well as 
all the gin ! Where would my cacao-plants be then ?' 
At a discount, undoubtedly. These are the effects on a 
country of despotism in a small way. 

On my way into San Jose I got off my mule to look 
at an old peasant making dulce, or in other words grind- 
ing his sugar-canes by the roadside. It was done in 
the most primitive manner. One bullock turned the 
mill, which consisted of three vertical wooden rollers. The 
juice trickled into a little cistern; and as soon as the old 
man found that he had enough, he baled it out and boiled 
it down. And yet I imagine that as good sugar may be 
made in Costa Eica as in British Guiana. But who will 
put his capital into a country in which the President 
can pass any law he pleases on his own behalf? 

In the neighbourhood of San Jose we began to come 
across the coffee plantations. They certainly give the 
best existing proof of the fertility and progress of the 
country. I had seen coffee plantations in Jamaica, but 
there they are beautifully picturesque, placed like hang- 
ing gardens on the steep mountain-sides. Some of these 
seem to be almost inaccessible, and the plant always has 
the appearance of being a hardy mountain shrub. But 
here in Costa Eica it is grown on the plain. The secret, 
I presume, is that a certain temperature is necessary, 
and that this is afforded by a certain altitude from the 
sea. In Jamaica this altitude is only to be found among 
the mountains, but it is attained in Costa Eica on the high 
plains of the interior. 

And then we jogged slowly into San Jose on the third 



PANAMA TO SAN JOSE. 



257 



day after our departure from Punta-arenas. Slowly, 
sorely, and with minds much preoccupied, we jogged 
into San Jose. On leaving the saw-mill at the end of the 
tramway my two friends had galloped gallantly away 
into the forest, as though a brave heart and a sharp pair 
of spurs would have sufficed to carry them right through 
to their journey's end. But the muleteer with his pony 
and the baggage-mule then lingered far behind. His 
heart was not so brave, nor were his spurs apparently so 
sharp. The luggage, too, was slipping every ten minutes, 
for I unfortunately had a portmanteau of which no mule- 
teer could ever make anything. It has been condemned 
in Holy Land, in Jamaica, in Costa Eica, wherever it has 
had to be fixed upon any animal's back. On this occa- 
sion it nearly broke both the heart of the muleteer and 
the back of the mule. 

But things were changed as we crept into San Jose. 
The muleteer was all life, and led the way, driving before 
him the pack-mule, now at length reconciled to his load. 
And then, at straggling intervals, our jibes all silenced, 
our showy canters all done, rising wearily in our stirrups 
at every step, shifting from side to side to ease the galls 
6 That patient merit of the unworthy takes ' — for our 
merit had been very patient, and our saddles very un- 
worthy — we jogged into San Jos£. 



( 258 ) 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CENTRAL AMERICA. COSTA RICA — SAN JOSE. 

All travellers when entering unknown towns for the 
first time have felt that intense interest on the subject of 
hotel accommodation which pervaded our hearts as we 
followed our guide through the streets. We had been 
told that there were two inns in the town, and that we 
were to go to the Hotel San Jose. And accordingly we 
went to it. 

It was quite evident that the landlord at first had some 
little doubt as to the propriety of admitting us ; and but 
for our guide, whom he knew, we should have had to 
explain at some length who we were. But under his 
auspices we were taken in without much question, 

The Spaniards themselves are not in their own coun- 
try at all famous for their inns. No European nation 
has probably advanced so slowly towards civilization in 
this respect as Spain has done. And therefore, as these 
Costa Ricans are Spanish by descent and language, and 
as the country itself is so far removed from European 
civilization, we did not expect much. Had we fallen 
into the hands of Spaniards we should probably have 
received less than we expected. But as it was we 
found ourselves in a comfortable second-class little Ger- 
man inn. It was German in everything ; its light-haired 
landlord, frequently to be seen with a beer tankard in 



COSTA EICA — SAX JOSE. 259 

hand; its tidy landlady, tidy at any rate in the evening, 
if not always so in the morning; its early hours, its 
cookery, its drink, and I think I may fairly add, its 
prices. 

On entering the first town I had visited in Central 
America, I had of course looked about me for strange 
sights. That men should be found with their heads 
under their shoulders, or even living in holes burrowed 
in the ground, I had not ventured to hope. But when 
a man has travelled all the way to Costa Rica, he does 
expect something strange. He does not look to find 
everything as tame and flat and uninteresting as though 
he were riding into a sleepy little borough town in Wilt- 
shire. 

We cannot cross from Dover to Ostend without finding 
at once that we are among a set of people foreign to our- 
selves. The first glance of the eye shows this in the 
architecture of the houses, and the costume of the people. 
We find the same cause for excitement in France, Switzer- 
land, and Italy ; and when we get as far as the Tyrol, we 
come upon a genus of mankind so essentially differing 
from our own as to make us feel that we have travelled 
indeed. 

But there is little more interest to be found in entering 
San Jose than in driving through the little Wiltshire town 
to which I have above alluded. The houses are comfort- 
able enough. They are built with very ordinary doors and 
windows, of one or two stories according to the wealth 
of the owners, and are decently clean outside, though 
apparently rather dirty within. The streets are broad 
and straight, being all at right angles to each other, and 
though not very well paved, are not rough enough to 
elicit admiration. There is a square, the plaza, in which 
stand the cathedral, the barracks, and a few of the best 
houses in the town. There is a large and tolerably well- 

s 2 



260 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



arranged market-place. There is a really handsome set of 
public buildings, and there are two moderately good hotels. 
What more can a man rationally want if he travel for 
business? And if he travel for pleasure how can he 
possibly find less ? 

It so happened that at the time of my visit to Costa 
Eica Sir William Ouseley was staying at San Jos^ with 
his family. He had been sent, as all the world that 
knows anything doubtless knows very well, as minister 
extraordinary from our Court to the governments of 
Central America, with the view of settling some of those 
tough diplomatic questions as to the rights of transit and 
occupation of territory, respecting which such world- 
famous Clayton-Bulwer treaties and Cass-Yrrisari treaties 
have been made and talked of. He had been in Nicara- 
gua, making no doubt an equally famous Ouseley-Some- 
thing treaty, and was now engaged on similar business 
in the capital of Costa Piica. 

Of the nature of this august work, — for such work must 
be very august, — I know nothing. I only hope that he 
may have at least as much success as those who went 
before him. But to me it was a great stroke of luck 
to find so pleasant and hospitable a family in so outlandish 
a place as San Jose. And indeed, though I have given 
praise to the hotel, I have given it with very little 
personal warrant as regards my knowledge either of the 
kitchen or cellar. My kitchen and cellar were beneath 
the British flag at the corner of the plaza, and I had 
reason to be satisfied with them in every respect. 

And I had abundant reason to be greatly gratified. 
For not only was there at San Jose a minister extraor- 
dinary, but also, attached to the mission, there was an 
extra-ordinary secretary of legation, a very prince of good 
fellows. At home he would be a denizen of the Foreign 
Office, and denizens of the Foreign Office are swells at 



COSTA EICA— SAN JOSE. 



261 



home. But at San Jose, where he rode on a mule, and 
wore a straw hat, and slept in a linendraper's shop, he 
was as pleasant a companion as a man would wish to 
meet on the western, or indeed on any other side of the 
Atlantic. 

I shall never forget the hours I spent in that linen- 
draper's shop. The rooms over the shop, over that shop 
and over two or three others, were occupied by Sir 
W. Ouseley and his family. There was a chemist's 
establishment there, and another in the possession, I 
think, of a hatter. They had been left to pursue their 
business in peace ; but my friend the secretary, finding 
no rooms sufficiently secluded for himself in the upper 
mansion, had managed to expel the haberdasher, and had 
located himself, not altogether uncomfortably, among the 
counters. 

Those who have spent two or three weeks in some 
foreign town in which they have no ordinary pursuits, 
know what it is to have — or perhaps, more unlucky, 
know what it is to be without — some pleasant accustomed 
haunt, in which they can pretend to read, while in truth 
the hours are passed in talking, with some few short 
intervals devoted to contemplation and tobacco. Such 
to me was the shop of the expelled linendraper at San 
Jose. In it, judiciously suspended among the counters, 
hung a Panama grass hammock, in which it was the 
custom of my diplomatic friend to lie at length and 
meditate his despatches. Such at least had been his 
custom before my arrival. What became of his despatches 
during the period of my stay, it pains me to think ; for 
in that hammock I had soon located myself, and I fear 
that my presence was not found to be a salutary incen- 
tive to composition. 

The scenery round San Jose is certainly striking, but 
not sufficiently so to enable one to rave about it. I 



262 



CENTRAL AMEKICA. 



cannot justly go into an ecstasy and sing of Pelion or 
Ossa ; nor can I talk of deep ravines to which the Via 
Mala is as nothing. There is a range of hills, respect- 
ably broken into prettiness, running nearly round the 
town, though much closer to it on the southern than on 
the other sides. Two little rivers run by it, which here 
and there fall into romantic pools, or pools which would 
be romantic if they were not so very distant from home ; 
— if having travelled so far one did not expect so very 
much. There are nice walks too, and pretty rides ; 
only the mules do not like fast trotting when the weight 
upon them is heavy. About a mile and a half from the 
town, there is a Savanah, so-called, or large square park, 
the Hyde Park of San Jose ; and it would be difficult to 
imagine a more pleasant place for a gallop. It is quite 
large enough for a race-course, and is open to every- 
body. Some part of the mountain range as seen from 
here is really beautiful. 

The valley of San Jose, as it is called, is four thou- 
sand five hundred feet above the sea ; and consequently, 
though within the tropics, and only ten degrees north 
of the line, the climate is good, and the heat, I believe, 
never excessive. I was there in April, and at that time, 
except for a few hours in the middle of the day, and 
that only on some days, there was nothing like tropical 
heat. Within ten days of my leaving San Jose I heard 
natives at Panama complaining of the heat as being 
altogether unendurable. But up there, on that high 
plateau, the sun had no strength that was inconvenient 
even to an Englishman. 

Indeed, no climate can, I imagine, be more favourable 
to fertility and to man's comfort at the same time than 
that of the interior of Costa Pica. The sugar-cane comes 
to maturity much quicker than in Demerara or Cuba. 
There it should be cut in about thirteen or fourteen 



COSTA MCA — SAN JOSE. 



263 



months from the time it is planted; in Nicaragua and 
Costa Eica it comes to perfection in nine or ten. The 
ground without manure will afford two crops of corn in 
a year. Coffee grows in great perfection, and gives a 
very heavy crop. The soil is all volcanic, or, I should 
perhaps more properly say, has been the produce of vol- 
canoes, and is indescribably fertile. And all this has 
been given without that intensity of heat which in those 
southern regions generally accompanies tropical fertility, 
and which makes hard work fatal to a white man ; while 
it creates lethargy and idleness, and neutralizes gifts 
which would otherwise be regarded as the fairest which 
God has bestowed on his creatures. In speaking thus, 
I refer to the central parts of Costa Rica only, — to those 
which lie some thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
Along the sea-shores, both of the Atlantic and Pacific, 
the heat is as great, and the climate as unwholesome as 
in New Granada or the West Indies. It would be diffi- 
cult to find a place worse circumstanced in this respect 
than Punta-arenas. 

But though the valley or plateau of San Jose, and the 
interior of the country generally is thus favourably situ- 
ated, I cannot say that the nation is prosperous. It seems 
to be God's will that highly-fertile countries should not 
really prosper. Man's energy is brought to its highest 
point by the presence of obstacles to be overcome, by the 
existence of difficulties which are all but insuperable. 
And therefore a Scotch farm will give a greater value 
in produce than an equal amount of land in Costa Eica. 
When nature does so much, man will do next to nothing ! 

Those who seem to do best in this country, both in 
trade and agriculture, are Germans. Most of those who 
are carrying on business on a large scale are foreigners, — 
that is, not Spanish by descent. There are English here, 
and Americans, and French, but I think the Germans are 



264 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



the most wedded to the country. The finest coffee pro- 
perties are in the hands of foreigners, as also are the 
plantations of canes, and saw-mills for the preparation 
of timber. But they have a very uphill task. Labour 
is extremely scarce, and very dear. The people are not 
idle as the negroes are, and they love to earn and put by 
money ; but they are very few in number ; they have land 
of their own, and are materially well off. In the neigh- 
bourhood of San Jose a man's labour is worth a dollar 
a day, and even at that price it is not always to be had. 

It seems to be the fact that in all countries in which 
slavery has existed and has been abolished this subject 
of labour offers the great difficulty in the way of improve- 
ment. Labour becomes unpopular, and is regarded as 
being in some sort degrading. Men will not reconcile 
it with their idea of freedom. They wish to work on 
their own land if they work at all ; and to be their own 
masters ; to grow their own crops, be they ever so small ; 
and to sit beneath their own vine, be the shade ever so 
limited. There are those who will delight to think that 
such has been the effect of emancipation ; who will argue, 
■ — and they have strong arguments on their side, — that 
God's will with reference to his creatures is best carried 
out by such an order of things. I can only say that the 
material result has not hitherto been good. As- far as 
we at present see, the struggle has produced idleness and 
sensuality, rather than prosperity and civilization. 

It is hardly fair to preach this doctrine, especially 
with regard to Costa Eica, for the people are not idle. 
That, at least, is not specially their character. They 
are a humdrum, contented, quiet, orderly race of men ; 
fond of money, but by no means fond of risking it; 
living well as regards sufficiency of food and raiment, 
but still living very close ; anxious to effect small savings, 
and politically contented if the security of those savings 



COSTA KICA — SAN JOSE. 



265 



can be insured to them. They seem to be little desirous, 
even among the upper classes, or what we would call the 
tradespeople, of education, either religious or profane ; 
they have no enthusiasm, no ardent desires, no aspirations. 
If only they could be allowed to sell their dulce to the 
maker of aguardiente, — if they might be permitted to get 
their little profit out of the manufacture of gin ! That, 
at present, is the one grievance that affects them, but even 
that they bear easily. 

It will perhaps be considered my duty to express an 
opinion whether or no they are an honest people. In one 
respect, certainly. They steal nothing ; at any rate, make 
no great thefts. No one is attacked on the roads ; no life 
is in danger from violence ; houses are not broken open. 
Nay, a traveller's purse left upon a table is, I believe, 
safe ; nor will his open portmanteau be rifled. But when 
you come to deal with them, the matter is different. 
Then their conscience becomes elastic; and as the trial 
is a fair one between man and man, they will do their 
best to cheat you. If they lie to you, cannot you lie to 
them? And is it not reasonable to suppose that you 
do so ? If they, by the aid of law, can get to the windy • 
side of you, is not that merely their success in opposition 
to your attempt — for of course you do attempt — to get to 
the windy side of them ? And then bribes are in great 
vogue. Justice is generally to be bought ; and when that 
is in the market, trade in other respects is not generally 
conducted in the most honest manner. 

Thus, on the whole, I cannot take upon myself to say 
that they are altogether an honest people. But they have 
that kind of honesty which is most essential to the man 
who travels in a wild country. They do not knock out 
the traveller's brains, or cut his throat for the sake of what 
he has in his pocket. 

Generally speaking the inhabitants of Costa Eica are 



266 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



of course Spanish by descent, but here, as in all these 
countries, the blood is very much mixed : pure Spanish 
blood is now, I take it, quite an exception. This is 
seen more in the physiognomy than in the colour, and 
is specially to be noticed in the hair. There is a mixture 
of three races, the Spanish, the native Indian, and the 
Negro; but the traces of the latter are comparatively 
light and few. Negroes, men and women, absolutely 
black, and of African birth or descent, are very rare; 
and though traces of the thick lip and the woolly hair 
are to be seen — to be seen in the streets and market- 
places — they do not by any means form the staple of the 
existing race. 

The mixture is of Spanish and of Indian blood, in 
which the Spanish no doubt much preponderates. The 
general colour is that of a white man, but of one who is 
very swarthy. Occasionally this becomes so marked that 
the observer at once pronounces the man or woman to be 
coloured. But it is the colouring of the Indian, and not 
of the negro; the hue is rich, and to a certain extent 
bright, and the lines of the face are not flattened and 
blunted. The hair also is altogether human, and in no 
wise sheepish. 

I do not think that the inhabitants of Costa Eica have 
much to boast of in the way of personal beauty. Indeed, 
the descendant of the Spaniard, out of his own country, 
seems to lose both the manly dignity and the female grace 
for which old Spain is still so noted. Some pretty girls I 
did see, but they could boast only the ordinary prettiness 
which is common to all young girls, and which our friends 
in France describe as being the special gift of the devil. 
I saw no fine, flaming, flashing eyes ; no brilliant figures, 
such as one sees in Seville around the altar-rails in the 
churches : no profiles opening upon me struck me with 
mute astonishment. 



COSTA EICA— SAN JCSE. 



207 



The women were humdrum in their appearance, as the 
men are in their pursuits. They are addicted to crinoline, 
as is the nature of women in these ages ; but so long as 
their petticoats stuck out, that seemed to be everything. 
In the churches they squat down on the ground, in lieu 
of kneeling, with their dresses and petticoats arranged 
around them, looking like huge turnips with cropped 
heads — like turnips that, by their persevering growth, 
had got half their roots above the ground. Isow women 
looking like turnips are not specially attractive. 

I was at San Jose during Passion Week, and had there- 
fore an opportunity of seeing the processions which are 
customary in Eoman Catholic countries at that period, 
I certainly should not say that the Costa Eicans are espe- 
cially a religious people. They are humdrum in this as 
in other respects, and have no enthusiasm either for or 
against the priesthood. Free-thinking is not the national 
sin; nor is fanaticism. They are all Eoman Catholics, 
most probably without an exception. Their fathers and 
mothers were so before them, and it is a thing of course. 

There used to be a bishop of Costa Eica ; indeed, they 
never were without one till the other day. But not long 
since the father of their church in some manner displeased 
the President : he had, I believe, taken it into his sacred 
head that he, as bishop, might make a second party in the 
state, and organize an opposition to the existing govern- 
ment; whereupon the President banished him, as the 
President can do to any one by his mere word, and since 
that time there has been no bishop. 6 And will they not 
get another T I asked. 6 No ; probably not ; they don't 
want one. It will be so much money saved.' Looking 
at the matter in this light, there is often much to be said 
for the expediency of reducing one's establishment. 
6 And who manages the church ?' 4 It does not require 
much management. It goes on in the old way. "When 



268 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



they want priests they get them from Guatemala.' If 
we could save all our bishoping, and get our priests as we 
want them from Guatemala, or any other factory, how ex- 
cellent would be the economy ! 

The cathedral of San Jose is a long, low building, with 
side aisles formed by very rickety-looking wooden pillars 
— in substance they are hardly more than poles — running 
from the ground to the roof. The building itself is mean 
enough, but the internal decorations are not badly arranged, 
and the general appearance is neat, orderly, and cool. 
We all know the usual manner in which wooden and 
waxen virgins are dressed and ornamented in such churches. 
There is as much of this here as elsewhere ; but I have 
seen it done in worse taste both in France and Italy. 
The facjade of the church, fronting the plaza, is hardly to 
be called a portion of the church ; but is an adjunct to it, 
or rather the church has been fixed on to the facade, which 
is not without some architectural pretension. 

In New Granada — Columbia that was— the cathedrals 
are arranged as they are in old Spain. The choir is not 
situated round the altar, or immediately in front of it, as 
is the custom in Christian churches in. I believe, all other 
countries, but is erected far down the centre aisle, near 
the western entrance. This, however, was not the case in 
any church that I saw in Costa Rica. 

During the whole of Passion Week there was a con- 
siderable amount of religious activity in the way of 
preaching and processions, which reached its acme on 
Good Friday. On that day the whole town was proces- 
sioning from morning — which means four o'clock— till 
evening— which means two hours after sunset. They had 
three figures, or rather three characters, — for two of them 
appeared in more than one guise and form,— each larger 
than life ; those, namely, of our Saviour, the Virgin, and 
St. John. These figures are made of wax, and the faces 



COSTA KICA-SAN JOSE. 



269 



of some of them were excellently moulded. These are 
manufactured in Guatemala — as the priests are ; and the 
people there pride themselves on their manufacture, not 
without reason. 

The figures of our Saviour and the Virgin were in dif- 
ferent dresses and attitudes, according to the period of the 
day which it was intended to represent ; but the St. John 
was always represented in the dress of a bishop of the pre- 
sent age. The figures were supported on mens shoulders, 
and were carried backwards and forwards through every 
portion of the town, till at last, having been brought forth 
in the morning from the cathedral, they were allowed at 
night to rest in a rival, and certainly better built, though 
smaller church. 

I must notice one particularity in the church-going 
population of this country. The women occupy the nave 
and centre aisle, squatting on the ground, and looking, as 
I have said, like turnips ; whereas the men never advance 
beyond the side aisles. The women of the higher classes 
— all those, indeed, who make any pretence to dress and 
finery — bring with them little bits of carpet, on which 
they squat ; but there are none of those chairs with which 
churches on the Continent are so commonly filled. 

It seemed that there is nothing that can be called society 
among the people of San Jose. They do not go out to 
each other's homes, nor meet in public ; they have neither 
tea-parties, nor dinner-parties, nor dancing-parties, nor 
card-parties. I was even assured — though I cannot say 
that the assurance reached my belief — that they never 
flirt ! Occasionally, on Sundays, for instance, and on 
holidays, they put on their best clothes and call on each 
other. But even then there is no conversation among 
them ; they sit stiffly on each other's sofas, and make re- 
marks at intervals, like minute guns, about the weather. 

'But what do they do?' I asked. 6 The men scrape 



270 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



money together, and when they have enough they build a 
house, big or little according to the amount that they have 
scraped : that satisfies the ambition of a Costa Rican. 
When he wishes to amuse himself, he goes to a cock-fight/ 
6 And the women ?' 6 They get married early if their 
fathers can give them a few ounces' — the ounce is the 
old doubloon, worth here about three pounds eight shillings 
sterling — ' and then they cook, and have children.' 6 And 
if the ounces be wanting, and they don't get married ?' 
' Then they cook all the same, but do not have the children, 
— as a general rule.' And so people vegetate in Costa 
Rica. 

And now I must say a word or two about the form of 
government in this country. It is a republic, of course, 
arranged on the model plan. A president is elected for a 
term of years, — in this case six. He has ministers who 
assist him in his government, and whom he appoints ; and 
there is a House of Congress, elected of course by the 
people, who make the laws. The President merely car- 
ries them out, and so Utopia is realized. 

Utopia might perhaps be realized in such republics, or 
at any rate the realization might not be so very distant as 
it is at present, were it not that in all of them the practice, 
by some accident, runs so far away from the theory. 

In Costa Rica, Don Juan Rafael Mora, familiarly called 
Juanito, is now the president, having been not long since 
re-elected (?) for the third time. ' We read in the 
" Gazette " on Tuesday morning that the election had 
been carried on Saturday, and that was all we knew about 
it.' It is thus they elect a president in Costa Rica ; no one 
knows anything of the affair, or troubles his head with the 
matter. If any one suggested a rival president, he would 
be banished. But such a thing is not thought of; no note 
is taken as to five years or six years. At some period 
that pleases him the President says that he has been re- 



COSTA RICA — SAX JOSE. 



271 



elected, and he is re-elected. Who cares? Why not 
Juanito as well as any one else ? Only it is a pity he will 
not let us sell our dulce to the distillers ! 

The President's salary is three thousand dollars a year ; 
an income which for so high a position is moderate enough. 
But then a further sum of six thousand dollars is added to 
this for official entertainment. The official entertainments, 
however, are not numerous. I was informed that he 
usually gives one party every year. He himself still lives 
in his private house, and still keeps a shop, as he did be- 
fore he was president. It must be remembered that there 
is no aristocracy in this country above the aristocracy of 
the shop-keepers. 

As far as I could learn, the Congress is altogether a farce. 
There is a congress or collection of men sent up from 
different parts of the country, some ten or dozen of whom 
sit occasionally round a table in the great hall ; but they 
neither debate, vote, nor offer opinions. Some one man, 
duly instructed by the President, lets them know what 
law is to be made or altered, and the law is made or altered. 
Should any member of Congress make himself disagree- 
able, he would, as a matter of course, be banished ; taken, 
that is, to Punta-arenas, and there told to shift for himself. 
Now this enforced journey to Punta-arenas does not seem 
to be more popular among the Costa Eicans than a journey 
to Siberia is among the Eussians. 

Such is the model republic of Central America, — ad- 
mitted, I am told, to be the best administered of the 
cluster of republics there established. This, at any rate, 
may certainly be said for it — that life and property are 
safe. They are safe for the present, and will probably re- 
main so, unless the filibusters make their way into the 
neicrhbourincr state of Nicaragua in greater numbers and 
with better leaders than they have hitherto had. 

And it must be told to the credit of the Costa Eicans, 



272 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



that it was by them and their efforts that the invasion of 
Walker and the filibusters into Central America was 
stopped and repelled. These enterprising gentlemen, the 
filibusters, landed on the coast of Nicaragua, having come 
down from California. Here they succeeded in getting 
possession of a large portion of the country, that portion 
being the most thickly populated and the richest ; many 
of the towns they utterly destroyed, and among them 
Granada, the capital. It seems that at this time the 
whole state of Nicaragua was paralyzed, and unable to 
strike any blow in its own defence. 

Having laid waste the upper or more northern country, 
Walker came down south as far as Eivas, a town still in 
Nicaragua but not far removed from the borders of Costa 
Rica. His intention, doubtless, was to take possession of 
Costa Rica, so that he might command the whole transit 
across the isthmus. 

But at Rivas he was attacked by the soldiery of Costa 
Rica, under the command of a brother of Don Juan Mora. 
This was in 1856, and it seems that some three thousand 
Costa Ricans were taken as far as Rivas. But few of 
them returned. They were attacked by cholera, and 
what with that, and want, and the intense heat, to which 
of course must be added what injuries the filibusters could 
do them, they were destroyed, and a remnant only came 
back. 

But in 1857 the different states of Central America 
joined themselves in a league, with the object of expelling 
these filibusters. I do not know that either of the three 
northern states sent any men to Rivas, and the weight of 
the struggle again fell upon Costa Rica. The Costa 
Ricans and Nicaraguans together invested Rivas, in which 
fiv6 hundred filibusters under Walker for some time 
maintained themselves. These men were reduced to 
great straits, and might no doubt have been taken bodily. 



COSTA RICA — SAN JOSE. 



273 



But the Central Americans also had their difficulties to 
contend with. They did not agree very well together, 
and they had but slender means of supporting themselves. 
It ended in a capitulation, under which Walker and his 
associates were to walk out with their arms and all the 
honours of war ; and by which, moreover, it was stipulated 
that the five hundred were to be sent back to America at 
the expense of the Central American States. The States, 
thinking no doubt that it was good economy to build a 
golden bridge for a flying enemy, did so send them back ; 
and in this manner for a while Central America was freed 
from the locusts. 

Such was the capitulation of Eivas ; a subject on which 
all Costa Eicans now take much pride to themselves. 
And indeed honour is due to them in this matter, for 
they evinced a spirit in the business when their neigh- 
bours of Nicaragua failed to do so. They soon determined 
that the filibusters would do them no good; — could 
indeed by no possibility do them anything but harm ; 
consequently, they resolved to have the first blow, and 
they struck it manfully, though not so successfully as 
might have been wished. 

The total population of Central America is, I believe, 
about two millions, while that of Costa Eica does not 
exceed two hundred thousand. Of the five states, Guate- 
mala has by far the largest number of inhabitants ; and 
indeed the town of Guatemala may still be regarded as 
the capital of all the isthmus territories. They fabricate 
1 there not only priests and wax images, but doctors and 
lawyers, and all those expensive luxuries for the production 
of which the air of a capital is generally considered 
necessary. The President of Guatemala is, they say, an 
Indian, nearly of pure descent ; his name is Carrera. * 

I have spoken of the army of Costa Eica. In point of 
accoutrement and outward show, they are on ordinary 

T 



274 



CENTBAL AMEEICA. 



days somewhat like the troops that were not fit to march 
through Coventry. They wear no regimentals, and are 
only to be known when on duty by a very rusty-looking 
gun. On Sundays, however, and holidays they do wear 
a sort of uniform, consisting of a neat cap, and a little braid- 
ing upon their best clothes. This dress, such as it is, 
they are obliged to find for themselves. The clothing de- 
partment, therefore, is not troublesome. 

These men are enrolled after the manner of our militia. 
The full number should be nine thousand, and is generally 
somewhat above six thousand. Of this number five 
hundred are kept in barracks, the men taking it by turns, 
month by month. When in barracks they receive about 
one shilling and sixpence a day; at other times they 
have no pay. 

I cannot close my notice of San Jose without speaking 
somewhat more specially of the range of public buildings. 
I am told that it was built by a German, or rather by two 
Germans ; the basement and the upper story being the 
work of different persons. Be this as it may, it is a 
handsome building, and would not disgrace any European 
capital. There is in it a throne-room — in England, at 
least, we should call it a throne ; on this the President 
sits when he receives ambassadors from foreign countries. 
The velvet and gilding were quite unexceptionable, and 
the whole is very imposing. The sitting of Congress is 
held in the same chamber ; but that, as I have explained, 
is not imposing. 

The chief produce of Costa Eica is coffee. Those who 
love statistics may perhaps care to know that the average 
yearly export is something under a hundred thousand 
quintals ; now a quintal weighs a hundred pounds, or 
rather, I believe, ninety-nine pounds exact. 



C 275 ) 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CENTRAL AMERICA. COSTA RICA — MOUNT IRAZU. 

In the neighbourhood of San Jos^ there is a volcanic 
mountain, the name of which is Irazu. I was informed 
that it still smoked, though it had discontinued for the 
present the ejection of flames and lava. Indeed, the 
whole country is full of such mountains. There is one, 
the Monte Blanco, the summit of which has never yet 
been reached — so rumour says in Costa Eica — far distant, 
enveloped among other mountains, and to be reached 
only through dense aboriginal forests, which still emits, 
and is always emitting fire and burning floods of molten 
stones. 

Different excursions have been made with the object 
of ascending the Monte Blanco, but hitherto in vain, 
Not long since it was attempted by a French baron, but 
he and his guide were for twenty days in the woods, and 
then returned, their provisions failing them. 

4 You should ascend the Monte Blanco,' said Sir 
William Ouseley to me. ( You are a man at large, with 
nothing to do. It is just the work for you/ This was Sir 
William's satire on the lightness of my ordinary occupa- 
tions. Light as they might be, however, I had neither 
time nor courage for an undertaking such as that ; so I 
determined to satisfy myself with the Irazu. 

It happened, rather unfortunately for me, that at the 

T 2 



276 



CENTKAL AMEEICA. 



moment of my arrival at San Jose, a large party, consist- 
ing of Sir William's family and others, were in the very 
act of visiting the mountain. Those, therefore, who were 
anxious to see the sight, and willing to undergo the 
labour, thus had their opportunity ; and it became impos- 
sible for me to make up a second party. One hope I had, 
The Secretary of Legation had not gone. Official occu- 
pation, joined to a dislike of mud and rough stones, had 
kept him at home. Perhaps I might prevail. The 
intensity of that work might give way before a week's 
unremitting labour, and that Sybarite propensity might 
be overcome. 

But all my eloquence was of no avail. An absence of 
a day and a half only was required ; and three were spent 
in proving that this could not' be effected. The stones 
and mud too were becoming worse and worse, for the 
rainy season had commenced. In fact, the Secretary of 
Legation would not budge. 4 Le jeu ne vaut pas la 
chandelle,' said the Secretary of Legation ; whereupon he 
lighted another cigar, and took a turn in the grass ham- 
mock. Now in my mind it must be a very bad game 
indeed that is not worth the candle ; and almost any game 
is better than no game at all. 

I was thus in deep trouble, making up my mind to go 
alone, or rather alone with my guide ; — for the due appre- 
ciation of which state of loneliness it must be borne in 
mind that, as I do not speak a word of Spanish, I should 
have no possible means of communication with the guide, 
— when a low and mild voice fell upon my ear, offering 
me its proprietor as my companion. 

6 I went up with Sir William last week,' said the mild 
voice ; fi and if you will permit me, I shall be happy to go 
with you. I should like to see it twice ; and I live at 
Oartago on the way.' 

It was quite clear that the owner of the voice was 



COSTA EICA— MOUXT IEAZU. 



277 



sacrificing himself, and offering to repeat this troublesome 
journey merely out of good nature ; but the service which 
he proposed to render me was too essential, and I could 
not afford to reject the offer. He lived in the country, 
and spoke Spanish, and was, moreover, a mild, kind- 
hearted little gentleman, very suitable as a companion, 
and not given too pertinaciously to a will of his own. 
Xow the Secretary of Legation would have driven me 
mad half a score of times during the journey. He would 
have deafened me with politics, and with such politics 
too ! So that on the whole I knew myself to be well off 
with the mild voice. 

6 You must go through Cartago,' said the mild voice, 
' and I live there. We will dine there at the inn to- 
morrow, and then do a portion of our w T ork the same even- 
ing.' It was so arranged. I w T as to be with him the next 
day at three, with a guide and two mules. 

On the next morning it rained provokingly. I ought 
to have started at twelve ; but at that time it was pouring, 
and neither the guide nor the mule showed themselves. 
6 You will never get there,' said the Secretary of Legation, 
looking up to the murky clouds with a gleam of delight. 
' The game is never worth such a candle as that.' 6 1 
shall get there most assuredly/ said I, rather sulkily, 
6 let the candle cost what it may.' But still the mules 
did not come. 

Men have no idea of time in any country that is or 
has been connected with Spain. 'Yes, seilor; you said 
twelve, and it is now only two ! Well, three. The day 
is long, senor ; there is plenty of time. Vaminos ? Since 
you are in such a hurry, shall we make a start of it ?' 

At half-past two o'clock so spoke — not my guide, for, 
as will be seen by-and-by, he never spoke at all — but my 
guide's owner, who came accompanying the mules. In 
huge hurry, with sundry mute exclamations, uttered by 



278 



CENTRAL AMEBICA. 



my countenance since my tongue was unintelligible, and 
"with appeals to my watch which should have broken the 
mans heart as I thrust it into his face, I clomb into my 
saddle. And then a poor-looking, shoeless creature, 
with a small straw hat tied on to his head by a handker- 
chief, with difficulty poised himself on the other beast. 
' Vamos,' I exclaimed, and trotted down the street ; for 
I knew that in that direction lay the road to Cartago. 
' God be with you,' said the Secretary of Legation. 
6 The rainy season has set in permanently, I know ; but 
perhaps you may have half an hour of sunshine now and 
again. I hope you will enjoy yourself.' 

It was not raining when I started, and in fact did not 
rain again the whole afternoon. I trotted valiantly down 
the street, knowing my way so far; but at the bottom 
of the town the roads divided, and I waited for my guide. 
'Go on first,' said I, pointing along the road. But he 
did not understand me, and stood still. ' Go on,' said I, 
getting behind his mule as though to drive him. But he 
merely stared, and shuffled himself to the other side of 
the road. * Cartago,' I shouted, meaning that he was 
to show me the way there. ' Si, senor,' he replied ; and 
backed himself into the ditch out of my way. He was 
certainly the stupidest man I ever met in my life, and 
I believe the Secretary of Legation had selected him on 
purpose. 

I was obliged to choose my own road out of two, and 
luckily chose the right one. Had I gone wrong, I doubt 
whether the man would have had wit enough to put me 
right. I again trotted on ; but in a quarter of an hour 
was obliged to wait, for my attendant was behind me, 
out of sight, and I felt myself bound to look after my 
traps, which were fastened to his mule. 6 Come on,' 
1 shouted in good broad English as soon as I saw him. 
s Why the mischief don't you come on ?' And my voice 



COSTA EICA — MOUNT IRAZU. 



279 



was so pitched, that on this occasion I think he did 
understand something of what I meant. 

' Co-o-ome along.' I repeated, as he gently drew up to 
me. And I hit his mule sharply on the crupper with my 
stick. ' Spur him, 5 I said ; and I explained what I meant 
by sticking my own rowels into my own beast. Where- 
upon the guide showed me that he had no spurs. 

Now if there be one rule of life more strictly kept in 
Costa Eica than another, it is this, that no man ever 
mounts horse or mule without spurs. A man in England 
would as soon think of hunting without breeches. No 
muleteer was ever seen without them. And when a mule 
is hired, if the hirer have no saddle, he may chance to 
have to ride without one; but if he have no spurs, he 
will always be supplied. 

I took off one of my own, which, by-the-by, I had bor- 
rowed out of the Secretary of Legation's establishment, 
and offered it to the man, remembering the well-known 
doctrine of Hudibras. He then showed me that one of 
his hands was tied up, and that he could not put the spur on- 
Consequently I was driven to dismount, myself, and to act 
equerry to this knight. Thrice on the road I had to do 
so, for twice the spur slipped from off his naked foot. 
Even with this I could not bring him on. It is four 
leagues, or about sixteen miles, from San Jos^ to Carta go, 
and with ail mv hastening we were three hours on the road. 

The way lay through a rich and finely-cultivated 
country. The whole of this is now called the valley of 
San Jose, and consists, in truth, of a broad plateau, diver- 
sified by moderate hills and valleys, but all being at a 
considerable height ; that is, from three to four thousand 
feet above the sea. The road also is fairly good ; so good 
that a species of omnibus runs on it daily, there being 
some considerable traffic between the places ; for Cartage 
is the second town in the republic. 



280 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



Cartago is now the second town, but not long since it 
was the first, [t was, however, destroyed by an earth- 
quake ; and though it has been rebuilt, it 1ms never again 
taken its former position, [ts present population is said 
to be ten thousand ; but this includes not only the suburbs, 
but the adjacent villages. The town covers a large tract 
of ground, whicla is divided into long, broad, parallel 
streets, with a large pldza in the middle; as though it had 
been expected that a fine Utopian city would have sprung 
up, Alas I there is nothing fine about it, and very little 
that is [Jtopian. 

Lingering near the hotel door, almost now in a state 
of despair, I met him of the mild voice. 'Yes; lie had 
been waiting for three hours, certainly/ lie mildly said, 

as 1 spin-red my beast up io the door. 'Now that I 

was come it was all right; and on the whole he rather 
liked waiting — that- is, when it did not result in waiting 
for nothing.' And then we sat down io dinner at the 
Cartago hotel. 

This also was kept by a German, who after a little 
hesitation confessed that he had come to the country as 
a filibuster. { You have fallen on your legs pretty well/ 
said 1 ; for he had a con^jfortable house, and gave us a 

decent dinner.' 'Yes,' said he, rather dubiously; 6 but 
when 1 came to Costa Rica I intended to do better than 
this/ He might, however, remember that not one in 
live hundred of them had done so well. 

And then another guide had to be found, for it was 
clear that the one that L had brought with me was useless. 
And I had a visit to make ; for my friend lived with a 
widow lady, who would be grieved he said, it' I passed 
through without seeing her. So L did call cm her. 1 saw 
her again on my return through Cartago, as I shall specify. 

With all these delays it was dark when we started. 
Our plan was to ride up to an upland pasture larm at 



COSTA RICA— MOUNT IRAZU. 



281 



which visitors to the mountain generally stop, to sleep 
there for a few hours, and then to start between three 
and four so as to reach the top of the mountain by sun- 
rise. Now I perfectly well remember what I said with 
reference to sunrises from mountain-tops on the occasion 
of that disastrous visit to the Blue Mountain Peak in 
Jamaica ; how I then swore that I would never do another 
mountain sunrise, having always failed lamentably in 
such attempts. I remember, and did remember this ; and 
as far as the sunrise was concerned would certainly have 
had nothing to do with the Irazu at five o'clock, A.M. 

But the volcano and the crater made the matter very 
different . They were my attractions ; and as the mild 
voice suggested an early hour, it would not have become 
me to have hesitated. c Start at four ?' 6 Certainly,' I 
said. ' The beds at the potrero' — such was the name 
they gave the place at which we stopped — 6 will not be 
soft enough to keep us sleeping.' c No,' said the mild 
voice, < they are not soft.' And so we proceeded. 

Our road was very rough, and very steep ; and the 
night was very dark. It was rough at first, and then it 
became slippery, which was worse. I had no idea that 
earth could be so slippery. My mule, which was a very 
fine one, fell under me repeatedly, being altogether un- 
able to keep her footing. On these occasions she usually 
scrambled up, with me still on her back. Once, how- 
ever, near the beginning of my difficulties, I thought to 
relieve her ; and to do so I got off her. I soon found my 
mistake. I immediately slipped down on my hands and 
knees, and found it impossible to stand on my feet. I 
did not sink into the mud, but slipped off it— down, 
down, down, as if I were going back to Cartago, all alone 
in the dark. It was with difficulty that I again mounted 
my beast ; but when there, there I remained, let her fall 
as she would. At eleven o'clock we reached the potrero. 



282 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 



The house here was little more than a rancho or hut ; 
one of those log farm buildings which settlers make when 
they first clear the timber from a part of their selected 
lots, intending to replace them in a year or two by such 
tidy little houses ; but so rarely fulfilling their intentions. 
All through Costa Eica such esablishments are common. On 
the coffee plantations and. in the more highly-cultivated 
part of the country, round the towns for instance, and 
along the road to Punta-arenas, the farmers have a better 
class of residence. They inhabit long, low-built houses, 
with tiled roofs and a ground floor only, not at all unlike 
farmers' houses in Ireland, only that there they are thatched 
or slated. Away from such patches of cultivation, one 
seldom finds any better accommodation than a rancho with 
a log-built hut. 

But the rancho had a door, and that door was fastened ; 
so we knocked and hallooed — ' Dito,' cried the guide ; 
such being, I presume, the familiar sobriquet of his friend 
within. 6 Dito/ sang out my mild friend with all his 
small energy of voice. c Dito,' shouted I ; and I think that 
my voice was the one w r hich wakened the sleepers within. 

We were soon admitted into the hut, and found that 
we were by no means the first comers. As soon as a 
candle was lighted we saw that there were four bedsteads 
in the room, and that two of them were occupied. There 
were, however, two left for my friend and myself. And 
it appeared also that the occupiers were friends of my 
friend. They were German savants, one by profession 
an architect and the other a doctor, who had come up 
into the woods looking for birds, beasts, and botanical 
treasures, and had already been there some three or four 
days. They were amply supplied with provisions, and 
immediately offered us supper. The architect sat up in 
bed to welcome us, and the doctor got up to clear the two 
spare beds of his trappings. 



COSTA RICA — MOUNT 1RAZU. 



283 



There is a luck in these things. I remember once 
clambering to the top of Scafell-Pike, in Cumberland— if 
it chance to be in Westmoreland I beg the county's par- 
don. I expected nothing more than men generally look 
for on the tops of mountains ; but to my great surprise I 
found a tent. I ventured to look in, and there I saw two 
officers of the Engineers, friends of my own, sharpening 
their knives preparatory to the dissection of a roast goose. 
And beside the goose stood a bottle of brandy. Kow I 
always looked on that as a direct dispensation of Provi- 
dence. Walking down the mountain that same evening 
to Whitehaven, I stopped at a small public-house on the 
side of Enerdale, and called for some whisky and water. 
The article produced was not good, and so I said, appeal- 
ing to an elderly gentleman in black, who sat by the hob- 
side, very contemplative. ' Ah/ said he ; 6 you can't get 
good drink in these parts, sir ; I know that so well that I 
generally bring a bottle of my own.' I immediately 
opened a warm conversation with that gentleman. He 
ws a clergyman of a neighbouring parish ; and in a few 
minutes a magnum of port had made its appearance out of 
a neighbouring cupboard. That I thought was another 
dispensation of Providence. It was odd that they should 
have come together ; but the facts are as I state them. 

I did venture on a glass of brandy and water and a 
slight morsel of bread and meat, and then I prepared to 
throw myself on the bed immediately opposite to the 
doctor's. As I did so I saw something move inside the 
doctor's bed. 6 My wife is there,' said the doctor, seeing 
the direction of my eyes. 6 Oh !' said I ; and I at once 
became very moderate in the slight change which I made 
in my toilet. 

We were to start at four, and at four precisely I woke. 
As my friend had said, there was little to tempt me to 
sleep. The great drawback to the comfort of these ranches 



284 



CENTKAL AMEEICA. 



is the quantity of dirt which continually falls out of the 
roof into one's eyes. Then the boards are hard of course, 
and of course also they are infested with vermin. They 
tell you indeed of scorpions and centipedes, of preternatural 
wasps, and musquitos as big as young ostriches ; but I 
found none of these large-looming beasts of prey. Of 
beasts of a smaller size I did find more than plenty. 

At four I was up, but my friend was very unwilling to 
stir. It was long before I could induce the mild voice to 
make itself heard in any way. At that time it w T as fine, 
but it was long before I could get the muleteer. When I 
had done so, and he had thrown their grass to the beasts, 
it began to rain — of course. ' It rains like the d — ' said I, 
very crossly. ' Does it ?' said the mild voice from the 
bed. 6 1 am so sorry and in half a second he was 
again in the land of dreams. The doctor snored ; but from 
the furthest remote corner I could see the eye of the 
doctor's wife looking out at me. 

It was between six and seven when we started. At 
that time it was not raining, but the clouds looked as like 
rain as the Secretary of Legation could have desired. And 
the two Germans were anything but consolatory in their 
prophecies. * You'll not see a stick or a stone,' said the 
architect ; 6 you'd better stop and breakfast with us.' ' It 
is very dangerous to be wet in the mountains, very danger- 
ous,' said the doctor. 6 It is a bad morning, certainly,' 
pleaded the mild voice piteously. The doctor's wife said 
nothing, but I could see her eyes looking out at the 
weather. How on earth was she to get herself dressed, it 
occurred to me then, if we should postpone our journey 
and remain there ? 

It ended in our starting just two hours after the pre- 
scribed time. The road up from the potrero is very steep 
almost the whole way to the summit, but it was not so 
muddy as that w r e had passed over on the preceding even- 



COSTA KICA— MOUXT IRAZtf. 



285 



ing. For some little way there were patches of cultiva- 
tion, the ground bearing sweet potatoes and Indian corn- 
Then we came into a tract of beautiful forest scenery. 
The land, though steep, was broken, and only partially 
covered with trees. The grass in patches was as good as 
in an English park, and the views through the open bits 
of the forest were very lovely. In four or five different 
places we found the ground sufficiently open for all the 
requirements of a picturesque country house, and no pret- 
tier site for such a house could well be found. This was 
by far the finest scenery that I had hitherto seen in Costa 
Eica ; but even here there was a want of water. In ascend- 
ing the mountain we saw some magnificent forest trees, 
generally of the kind called cotton-trees in Jamaica. There 
were oaks also — so called there — very nearly approach- 
ing our holm-oak in colour and foliage, but much larger than 
that tree is with us. They were all more or less covered 
with parasite plants, and those parasites certainly add 
greatly to the beauty of the supporting trunk. 

By degrees we got into thick forest — forest I mean so 
thick that it affords no views. You see and feel the 
trees that are close to you, but see nothing else. And 
here the path became so steep that we were obliged to 
dismount and let the beasts clamber up by themselves ; 
and the mist became very thick, so much so that we could 
hardly trace our path : and then the guide said that he 
thought he had lost his way. 

• ' People often do come out and go back again without 
ever reaching the crater at all, don't they ?' said the mild 
voice. 

' Very often,' said the guide. 

' But we won't be such people,' said I. 

6 Oh no !' said the mild voice, 6 Not if we can help it.' 

• And we will help it. Allons ; andiamos ; vamos.' 

The first word which an Englishman learns in any 



286 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



language is that which signifies a determination to pro- 
ceed. 

And we did proceed, turning now hither and now 
thither, groping about in the mist, till at last the wood 
was all left behind us, and we were out among long grass 
on a mountain-side. 6 And now,' said the guide, ' unless 
the mist clears I can't say which way we ought to go.' 

The words were hardly out of his mouth when the mist 
did clear itself away altogether from one side of us. Look- 
ing down to the left, we could see far away into the valleys 
beneath, over large forests, and across a lower range of 
hills, till the eye could reach the cultivated plateau below. 
But on the other side, looking up to a mountain .higher 
still than that on which we stood, all was not only misty, 
but perfectly dark and inscrutable. 

The guide however now knew the spot. We were 
near the summit of Irazu, and a further ride of a quarter 
of an hour took us there ; and indeed here there was no 
difficulty in riding. The side of the hill was covered 
with grass, and not over steep. 6 There,' said the mild 
voice, pointing to a broad, bushy, stumpy tree, 6 there 
is the place where Lady Ouseley breakfasted.' And he 
looked at our modest havresack. 6 And we will breakfast 
there too/ I answered. 6 But we will go down the crater 
first.' 

' Oh, yes ; certainly/ said the mild voice. 6 But perhaps 
- — I don't know — I am not sure I can go exactly down 
into the crater.' 

The crater of the volcano is not at the top of the moun- 
tain, or rather it is not at what is now the top of the 
mountain ; so that at first one has to look down upon it. 
I doubt even whether the volcano has ever effected the 
absolute summit. I may as well state here that the height 
of the mountain on which we were now standing is supposed 
to be 11,500 feet above the sea-level. 



COSTA RICA — MOUNT IRAZU. 



287 



Luckily for us, though the mist reached to us where 
we stood, everything to the left of us was clear, and we 
could look down, down into the crater as into a basin. 
Everything was clear, so that we could count the different 
orifices, eight in number, of which two, however, had 
almost run themselves into one ; and see, as far as it was 
possible to see, how the present formation of the volcano 
had been brought about. 

It was as though a very large excavation had been 
made on the side of a hill, commencing, indeed, not quite 
from the summit, but very near it, and leaving a vast hole 
— not deep in proportion to its surface — sloping down the 
mountain-side. This huge excavation,' which I take to 
be the extent of the crater, for it has evidently been all 
formed by the irruption of volcanic matter, is divided into 
two parts, a broken fragment of a mountain now lying be- 
tween them ; and the smaller of these two has lost all 
volcanic appearance. It is a good deal covered with bush 
and scrubby forest trees, and seems to have no remaining 
connection with sulphur and brimstone. 

The other part, in which the crater now absolutely in 
use is situated, is a large hollow in the mountain-side, 
which might perhaps contain a farm of six hundred acres. 
Not having been able to measure it, I know no other way 
of describing what appeared to me to be its size. But a 
great portion of this again has lost all its volcanic appen- 
dages ; except, indeed, that lumps of lava are scattered 
over the whole of it, as they are, though more sparingly, 
over the mountain beyond. There is a ledge of rock run- 
ning round the interior of this division of the excavation, 
half-way down it, like a row of seats in a Roman amphi- 
theatre, or an excrescence, if one can fancy such, half-way 
down a teacup. The ground above this ledge is of course 
more extensive than that below, as the hollow narrows 
towards the bottom. The present working mouth of the 



288 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



volcanic, and all those that have been working for many 
a long year — the eight in number of which I have 
spoken — lie at the bottom of this lowest hollow. This 
I should say might contain a farm of about two hundred 
acres. 

Such was the form of the land on which we looked 
down. The descent from the top to the ledge was easy 
enough, and was made by myself and my friend with 
considerable rapidity. I started at a pace which convinced 
him that I should break my neck, and he folio wed, gal- 
lantly resolving to die with me. c You'll surely kill your- 
self, Mr. Trollope ; you surely will/ said the mild voice. 
And yet he never 'deserted me. 

* Sir William got as far as this,' said he, when we were 
on the ledge, but he got no further. ' We will do better 
than Sir William,' said I. ' We will go down into that 
hole where we see the sulphur.' ' Into the very hole ?' 
c Yes. If we get to windward, I think we can get into 
the very hole. Look at the huge column of white smoke ; 
how it comes all in this direction ! On the other side of 
the crater we should not feel it.' 

The descent below the ledge into my smaller farm was 
not made so easily. It must be understood that our guide 
was left above with the mules. We should have brought 
two men, whereas we had only brought one ; and had 
therefore to perform our climbing unassisted. I at first 
attempted it in a direct line, down from where we stood ; 
but I soon found this to be impracticable, and was forced 
to reascend. The earth was so friable that it broke away 
from me at every motion that I made ; and after having 
gone down a few feet I was glad enough to find myself 
again on the ledge. 

We then walked round considerably to the right, pro- 
bably for more than a quarter of a mile, and there a little 
spur in the hillside —a buttress as it were to the ledge of 



COSTA EICA— MOUNT IRAZU 



289 



which I have spoken — made the descent much easier, and 
I again tried. 

1 Do not you mind following me/ I said to my com- 
panion, for I saw that he looked much aghast. 6 None of 
Sir William's party went down there,' he answered. 
\ Are you sure of that ?' I asked. ' Quite sure/ said the 
mild voice. ' Then what a triumph we will have over 
Sir William !' and so saying I proceeded. ' 1 think 
I'll come too/ said the mild voice. ' If I do break 
my neck nobody'll be much the worse ;' and he did 
follow me. 

There was nothing very difficult in the clambering, 
out, unfortunately, just as we got to the bottom the mist 
came pouring down upon us, and I could not but bethink 
me that I should find it very difficult to make my way 
up again without seeing any of the landmarks. I could 
still see all below me, but I could see nothing that was 
above. It seemed as though the mist kept at our own 
level, and that we dragged it with us. 

We were soon in one of the eight small craters or 
mouths of which I have spoken. Looking at them from 
above, they seemed to be nearly on a level, but it now ap- 
peared that one or two were considerably higher than the 
others. We were now in the one that was the highest on 
that side of the excavation. It was a shallow basin, or 
rather saucer, perhaps sixty yards in diameter, the bottom 
of which was composed of smooth light-coloured sandy 
clay. In dry weather it would partake almost of the 
[ nature of sand. Many many years had certainly rolled by 
since this mouth had been eloquent with brimstone. 

The place at this time was very cold. My friend had 
brought a large shawl with him, with which over and over 
again he attempted to cover my shoulders. I, having 
meditated much on the matter, had left my cloak above. 
At the present moment I regretted it sorely : but, as 

U 



290 



CENTRAL AMEKICA. 



matters turned out, it would have half smothered me be- 
fore our walk was over. 

We had now nothing for it but to wait till the mist 
should go off. There was but one open mouth to this 
mountain — one veritable crater from which a column of 
smoke and sulphur did then actually issue, and this, 
though the smell of the brimstone was already oppressive, 
was at some little distance. Gradually the mist did go 
off, or rather it shifted itself continually, now ascending 
far above us, and soon returning to our feet. We then 
advanced between two other mouths, and came to that 
which was nearest to the existing crater. 

Here the aperture was of a very different kind. 
Though no smoke issued from it, and though there was 
a small tree growing at the bottom of it, — showing, as I 
presume, that there had been no eruption from thence 
since the seed of that tree had fallen to the ground, — yet 
the sides of the crater were as sharp and steep as the 
walls of a house. Into those which we had hitherto 
visited we could walk easily ; into this no one could 
descend even a single foot, unless, indeed, he descended 
somewhat more than a foot so as to dash himself to pieces 
at the bottom. They were, when compared together, as 
the interior of a plate compared to that of a tea-caddy. 
Now a traveller travelling in such realms would easily 
extricate himself from the plate, but the depths of the 
tea-caddy would offer him no hope. 

Having walked round this mute volcano, we ascended 
to the side of the one which was now smoking, for the 
aperture to this was considerably higher than that of the 
last one mentioned. As we were then situated, the 
smoke was bearing towards us, and every moment it 
became more oppressive ; but I saw, or thought I saw, 
that we could skirt round to the back of the crater, 
so is not to get its full volume upon us ; and so I pro- 



COSTA BICA- 



.— MOUNT IRAZU. 



291 



ceeded, he of the mild voice mildly expostulating, but 
always following me. 

But when we had ascended to the level of the hole the 
wind suddenly shifted, and the column of smoke dis- 
persing enveloped us altogether. Had it come upon us 
in all its thickest mass I doubt whether it would not have 
first stupefied and then choked us. As it was, we ran 
for it, and succeeded in running out of it. It affected 
me, I think, more powerfully than it did my companion, 
for he was the first to regain his speech. 6 Sir William, 
at any rate, saw nothing like that,' said he, coughing 
triumphantly. 

I hope that I may never feel or smell anything like it 
again. This smoke is emitted from the earth at the 
bottom of a deep hole very similar to that above de- 
scribed. The sides of it all round are so steep that it is 
impossible to make even an attempt to descend it. By 
holding each other's hands we could look over into it one 
at a time, and see the very jaws in the rock from which 
the stream of sulphur ascends. It comes out quite yellow 
almost a dark yellow, but gradually blanches as it expands 
in its course. These jaws in the rock are not in the centre 
of the bottom of the pit, but in a sharp angle, as it were, 
so that the smoke comes up against one side or wall, and 
that side is perfectly encrusted with the sulphur. It was 
at the end of the orifice, exactly opposite to this, that we 
knelt down and looked over, 

The smoke when it struck upon us, immediately above 
this wall, was hot and thick and full of brimstone. The 
stench for a moment was very bad ; but the effect went 
off at once, as soon as we were out of it. 

The mild voice grasped my hand very tightly as he 
crept to the edge and looked over. 6 Ah !' he said, 
rejoicing greatly, ' Sir William never saw that, nor any 
of his party ; I am so glad I came asfain with you. I 

u 2 



292 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



wonder whether anybody ever was here before.' Hun- 
dreds doubtless have been, and thousands will be. Nine 
out of every ten men in London, between the ages of 
fifteen and fifty, would think little of the trouble and less 
of the danger of getting there ; but I could not interfere 
with the triumph of my friend, so I merely remarked 
that it certainly was a very singular place. 

And then we had to reascend. It was now past 
eleven o'clock, and as yet we had had no breakfast, for 
I cannot call that cup of coffee which we took at starting 
a breakfast, even though the German architect handed 
to each of us from out of his bed a hunch of beef and a 
crust of bread. Luckily the air was clear for a while, so 
that we could see what we were about, and we began to 
climb up on the side opposite to that by which we had 
descended. 

And here I happened to mention that Miss Ouseley 
had commissioned me to get two bits of lava, one smooth 
and the other rough — unfortunately, for at once the mild 
voice declared that he had found two morsels which 
would exactly suit the lady's taste. I looked round, and, 
lo ! there was my small friend with two huge stones, each 
weighing about twenty pounds, which, on the side of the 
mountain, he was endeavouring to pack under his arms. 
Now, the mountain here was very steep and very friable ; 
the burnt shingle slipped from under our feet at every 
step ; and, to make matters worse, we were climbing in a 
slanting direction. 

6 My dear fellow, it would kill you to carry those 
lumps to the top/ I said ; * do not think of it.' 

But he persevered. c There were no lumps of lava 
such as those,' he said, 'to be found at the top. They 
were just what Miss Ouseley wanted. He thought he 
would be able to manage with them. They were not so 
very heavy, if only the ground did not slip so much.' I 



COSTA RICA— MOUNT IE^ZU. 



2<J3 



said what I could, but it was of no avail, and lie followed 
me slowly with, his sore burden. 

I never knew the weather change with such rapidity. 
At this moment the sun was bright and very hot, and I 
could hardly bear my coat on my shoulders as I crept up 
that hill. How my little friend followed with his shawl 
and the lava rocks I cannot conceive. But, to own the 
truth, going down hill suits me better than going up. 
Years and obesity tell upon the wind sooner than they 
do on the legs — so, at least, it is with me. Now my mild 
friend hardly weighed fifteen ounces, while I ! 

And then, when we were again on the ridge, it began 
to rain most gloriously. Hitherto we had had mist, but 
this was a regular down-pour of rain — such moisture as 
the Secretary of Legation had been praying for ever since 
we started. Again and again the mild voice offered me 
the shawl, which, when I refused it, he wrapped round 
the lumps of lava, scorning to be drier than his companion. 
From the summit to the ledge we had come down fast 
enough, but the ascent was very different. I, at any 
rate, was very tired, and my friend was by no means as 
fresh as he had been. We were both in want of food, and 
our clothes were heavy with wet. He also still carried his 
lumps of lava. 

At last, all raining as it was, I sat down. How far 
we might still be from the top I could not see ; but be 
it far or be it near, nature required rest. I threw myself 
on the ground, and the mild voice not unwillingly crouched 
down close to me. 'Now we can both have the shawl,' 
said he, and he put it over our joint shoulders ; that is, he 
put the shawl on mine while the fringe hung over his 
own. In half a minute we were both asleep, almost in 
each others arms. 

Men when they sleep thus on a mountain-side in the 
rain do not usually sleep long. Forty winks is generally 



294 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 



acknowledged. Our nap may have amounted to eighty 
each, but I doubt whether it was more. We started 
together, rubbed our eyes, jumped to our feet, and 
prepared ourselves for work. But, alas ! where was the 
lava? 

My impression is that in my sleep I must have kicked 
the stones and sent them rolling. At any rate, they 
were gone. Dark and wet as it was, we both went down 
a yard or two, but it was in vain ; nothing could be seen 
of them. The mild voice handed me the shawl, pre- 
paring to descend in their search ; but this was too much. 
' You will only lose yourself,' said I, laying hold of him, 
6 and I shall have to look for your bones. Besides, I 
want my breakfast ! We will get other specimens above.' 

' And perhaps they will be just as good,' said he, cheer- 
fully, when he found that he would not be allowed to 
have his way. 

4 Every bit,' said I. And so we trudged on, and at 
last reached our mules. From this point men see, or 
think that they see, the two oceans— the Atlantic and 
the Pacific — and this sight to many is one of the main 
objects of the ascent. We saw neither the one ocean nor 
the other. 

We got back to the potrero about three, and found our 
German friends just sitting down to dinner. The archi- 
tect was seated on his bed on one side of the table arrang- 
ing the viands, while the doctor on the other scooped out 
the brains of a strange bird with a penknife. The latter 
operation he performed with a view of stuffing, not him- 
self, but the animal. They pressed us to dine with them 
before we started, and we did so, though I must confess 
that the doctor's occupation rather set me against my 
food. 'If it be not done at once,' said he, apologizing, 
' it can't be done well ;' and he scraped, and scraped, 
and wiped his knife against the edge of the little table 



COSTA RICA — MOUNT IEAZU. 



295 



on which the dishes were placed. What had become 
of the doctor's wife I do not know, but she was not at the 
potrero when we dined there. 

It was evening when we got into Cartago, and very 
tired we were. My mind, however, was made up to go 
on to San J ose that night, and ultimately I did so ; but 
before starting, I was bound to repeat my visit to the 
English lady with whom my mild friend lived. Mrs. 

X was, and I suppose is, the only Englishwoman 

living in Cartago, and with that sudden intimacy which 
springs up with more than tropical celerity in such places, 
she told me the singular history of her married life. 

The reader would not care that I should repeat it at 
length, for it would make this chapter too long. Her 
husband had been engaged in mining operations, and she 
had come out to Guatemala with him in search of gold. 
From thence, after a period of partial success, he was 
enticed away into Costa Eica. Some speculation there, 
in which he or his partners were concerned, promised 
better than that other one in Guatemala, and he went, 
leaving his young wife and children behind him. Of 
course he was to return very soon, and of course he did 
not return at all. Mrs. X— — - was left with her children, 
searching for gold herself. ' Every evening,' she said, 
6 1 saw the earth washed myself, and took up with me 
to the house the gold that was found.' What an occupa- 
tion for a young Englishwoman, the mother of three 
children ! At this time she spoke no Spanish, and had 
no one with her who spoke English. 

And then tidings came from her husband that he could 
not come to her, and she made up her mind to go to him. 
She had no money, the gold- washing having failed ; her 
children were without shoes to their feet ; she had no 
female companion ; she had no attendant but one native 
man; and yet, starting from the middle of Guatemala, 



296 



CENTKAL AMEBICA. 



she made her way to the coast, and thence by ship to 
Costa Eica. 

After that her husband became engaged in what, in 
those countries, is called * transit/ Now ' transit ' means 
the privilege of making money by transporting Americans 
of the United States over the isthmus to and from Cali- 
fornia, and in most hands has led to fraud, filibustering, 

ruin, and destruction. Mr. X- , like many others, 

was taken in, and according to his widow's account, the 
matter ended in a deputation being sent, from New York 
I think, to murder him. He was struck with a life- 
preserver in the streets of San Jose, never fully recovered 
from the blow, and then died. 

He had become possessed of a small estate in the neigh- 
bourhood of Cartago, on the proceeds of which the widow 
was now living. 6 And will you not return home V I 
said. 6 Yes ; when I have got my rights. Look here — ' 
and she brought down a ledger, showing me that she 
had all manner of claims to all manner of shares in all 
manner of mines. 6 Aurum irrepertum et sic melius 
situm !' As regards her, it certainly would have been so. 

For a coined sovereign, or five-dollar piece, I have the 
most profound respect. It is about the most faithful ser- 
vant that a man can have in his employment, and should 
be held as by no means subject to those scurrilous attacks 
which a pharisaically moral world so often levels at its 
head. But of all objects of a man's ambition uncoined 
gold, gold to be collected in sand, or picked up in nug- 
gets, or washed out of earth, is, to my thinking, the most 
delusive and most dangerous ! Who knows, or has known, 
or ever seen, any man that has returned happy from 
the diggings, and now sits contented under .his own fig- 
tree ? 

My friend Mrs. X was still hankering after the 

flesh-pots of Egypt, the hidden gold of the Central Ame- 



COSTA RICA— MOUNT IKAZU. 



297 



rican mountains. She slapped her hands loudly together, 
for she was a woman of much energy, and declared that 
she would have her rights. When she had gotten her 
rights she would go home. Alas ! alas ! poor lady ! 

6 And you,' said I, to the mild voice, 6 will not you 
return ?' 

6 1 suppose so,' said he, ' when Mrs. X goes ;' and 

he looked up to the widow as though confessing that he 
was bound to her service, and would not leave her ; not 
that I think they had the slightest idea of joining 
their lots together as men and women do. He was too 
mild for that. 

I did ride back to San Jose' that night, and a most 
frightful journey I had of it. I resumed, of course, my 
speechless, useless, dolt of a guide— the man whom the 
Secretary of Legation had selected for me before I started. 
Again I put my spur on his foot, and endeavoured to 
spirit him up to ride before me, so that I might 
know my way in the dark ; but it was in vain ; nothing 
would move him out of a walk, and I was obliged to leave 
him. 

And then it became frightfully dark — pitch dark as men 
say — dark so that I could not see my mule's ears, I 
had nothing for it but to trust to her ; and soon found, 
by being taken down into the deep bed of a river and 
through deep water, that we had left the road by which 
I had before travelled. The beast did not live in San 
Josd I knew, and I looked to be carried to some country 
rancho at which she would be at home. But in a time 
sufficiently short, I found myself in San Jose*. The 
creature had known a shorter cut than that usually taken. 



( 298 ) 



CHAPTER XX. 

CENTRAL AMERICA— -SAN JOS£ TO GREYTOWN". 

My purpose was to go right across Central America, 
from ocean to ocean, and to accomplish this it was neces- 
sary that I should now make my way down to the mouth 
of the San Juan river — to San Juan del Norte as it was 
formerly called, or Grreytown as it is now named by the 
English. This road, I was informed by all of whom I 
inquired, was very bad, — so bad as to be all but imprac- 
ticable to English travellers. 

And then, just at that moment, an event occurred which 
added greatly to the ill name of this route. A few days 
before I reached San Jos6 a gentleman resident there had 
started for England with his wife, and they had decided 
upon going by the San Juan. It seems that the lady had 
reached San Jose, as all people do reach it, by Panama 
and Punta-arenas, and had suffered on the route. At any 
rate, she had taken a dislike to it, and had resolved on 
returning by the San Juan and the Serapiqui rivers, a 
route which is called the Serapiqui road. 

To do this it is necessary for the traveller to ride on 
mules for four, five, or six days, according to his or her 
capability. The Serapiqui river is then reached, and 
from that point the further journey is made in canoes 



SAN JOSE TO GREYTOWN. 



299 



down the Serapiqui river till it falls into the San Juan, 
and then down that river to Greytown. 

This gentleman with his wife reached the Serapiqui 
in safety ; though it seems that she suffered greatly on the 
road. But when once there, as she herself said, all her 
troubles were over. That weary work of supporting her- 
self on her mule, through mud and thorns and thick bushes, 
of scrambling over precipices and through rivers, was done. 
She had been very despondent, even from before the time 
of her starting ; but now, she said, she believed that she 
should live to see her mother again. She was seated in 
the narrow canoe, among cloaks and cushions, with her 
husband close to her, and the boat was pushed into the 
stream. Almost in a moment, within two minutes of 
starting, not a hundred yards from the place where she 
had last trod, the canoe struck against a snag or upturned 
fragment of a tree and was overset. The lady was borne 
by the stream among the entangled branches of timber 
which clogged the river, and when her body was found 
life had been long extinct. 

This had happened on the very day that I reached 
San Jos<3, and the news arrived two or three days after- 
wards. The wretched husband, too, made his way back to 
the town, finding himself unable to go on upon his journey 
alone, with such a burden on his back. What could he 
have said to his young wife's mother when she came to 
meet him at Southamptom, expecting to throw her arms 
round her daughter ? 

I was again lucky in having a companion for my jour- 
ney. A young lieutenant of the Navy, Fitzm by 

name, whose vessel was lying at Greytown, had made his 
way up to San Jose on a visit to the Ouseleys, and was to re- 
turn at the same time that I went down. He had indeed 
travelled up with the bereaved man who had lost his wife, 
having read the funeral service over the poor woman's 



300 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 



grave on the lonely shores of the Serapiqui. The road, 
he acknowledged, was bad, too bad, he thought, for any- 
female ; but not more than sufficiently so to make proper 
excitement for a man. He, at any rate, had come over it 
safely; but then he was twenty-four, and I forty-four; 
and so we started together from San Jose, a crowd of 
friends accompanying us for the first mile or two. There 
was that Secretary of Legation prophesying that we should 
be smothered in the mud • there was the Consul and the 
Consul's brother ; nor was female beauty wanting to wish 
us well on our road, and maybe to fling an old shoe after 
us for luck as we went upon our journey. 

We took four mules, that was one each for ourselves, 
and two for our baggage ; we had two guides or mule- 
teers, according to bargain, both of whom travelled on 
foot. The understanding was, that one mule lightly 
laden with provisions and a pair of slippers and a tooth- 
brush should accompany us, one man also going with 
us ; but that the heavy-laden mule should come along 
after us at its own pace. Things, however, did not so 
turn out : on the first day both the men and both the 
mules lagged behind, and on one occasion we were obliged 
to wait above an hour for them ; but after that we all kept 
in a string together, having picked up a third muleteer 
somewhere on the road. We had also with us a distressed 
British subject, who was intrusted to my tender mercies 
by the Consul at San Jose. He was not a good sample of 
a Britisher ; he had been a gold-finder in California, then 
a filibuster, after that a teacher of the piano in the country 
part of Costa Eica, and lastly an omnibus driver. He was 
to act as interpreter for us, which, however, he did not do 
with much honesty or zeal. 

Our road at first lay through the towns of Aredia and 
Barba, the former of which is a pleasant-looking little vil- 
lage, where, however, we found great difficulty in getting 



SAN JOSE TO GEEYTOWN. 



301 



anything to drink. Up to this, and for a few leagues 
further, the road was very fair, and the land on each side 
of us was cultivated. We had started at eight a.m., and at 
about three in the afternoon there seemed to be great doubt 
as to where we should stop. The leading muleteer wished 
to take us to a house of a friend of his own, whereas the 
lieutenant and I resolved that the day's work had not been 
long enough. I take it that on the whole we were right, 
and the man gave in with sufficient good humour ; but it 
ended in our passing the night in a miserable rancho. 
That at the potrero, on the road to the volcanic mountain, 
had been a palace to it. 

And here we got into the forest ; we had hitherto been 
ascending the whole way from San Jose, and had by de- 
grees lost all appearance of tillage. Still, however, there 
had been open spaces here and there cleared for cattle, 
and we had not as yet found ourselves absolutely enveloped 
by woods. This rancho was called Buena-vista ; and cer- 
tainly the view from it was very pretty. It was pretty and 
extensive, as I have seen views in Baden and parts of Bava- 
ria : but again there was nothing about which I could rave. 

I shall not readily forget the night in that rancho. 
We were, I presume, between seven and eight thousand 
feet above the sea-level; and at night, or rather early 

in the morning, the cold was very severe. Fitzm 

and I shared the same bed ; that is, we lay on the same 
boards, and did what we could to cover ourselves with 
the same blankets. In that country men commonly ride 
upon blankets, having them strapped over the saddles 
as pillions, and we had come so provided ; but before 
the morning was over I heartily wished for a double 
allowance. 

We had brought with us a wallet of provisions, certainly 
not too well arranged by Sir William Ouseley's most re- 
prehensible butler. Travellers should never trust to but- 



302 



CENTKAL AMERICA. 



lers. Our piece de resistance was a ham, and lo ! it 
turned out to a be bad one. When the truth of this fact first 
dawned upon us it was in both our minds to go back and 
slay that butler : but there was still a piece of beef and 
some chickens, and there had been a few dozen of hard- 
boiled eggs. But Fitzm — — would amuse himself with 
eating these all along the road : I always found when the 
ordinary feeding time came that they had not the slightest 
effect upon his appetite. 

On the next morning we again ascended for about a 
couple of leagues, and as long as we did so the road was 
still good ; the surface was hard, and the track was broad, 
and a horseman could wish nothing better. And then we 
reached the summit of the ridge over which we were 
passing; this we did at a place called Desenganos, and 
from thence we looked down into vast valleys all running 
towards the Atlantic. Hitherto the fall of water had been 
into the Pacific, 

At this place we found a huge shed, with numberless 
bins and troughs lying under it in great confusion. The 
facts, as far as I could learn, were thus : Up to this point 
the government, that is Don Juan Mora, or perhaps his 
predecessor, had succeeded in making a road fit for the 
transit of mule carts. This shed had also been built to 
afford shelter for the postmen and accommodation for the 
muleteers. But here Don Juan's efforts had been stopped ; 
money probably had failed ; and the great remainder of the 
undertaking will, I fear, be left undone for many a long 
year. 

And yet this, or some other road from the valley of 
San Jose to the Atlantic, would be the natural outlet 
of the country. At present the coffee grown in the 
central high lands is carried down to Punta-arenas on 
the Pacific, although it must cross the Atlantic to reach 
its market ; consequently, it is either taken round the 



SAN JOSE TO GKEYTOWN. 



303 



Horn, and its sale thus delayed for months, or it is trans- 
ported across the isthmus by railway, at an enormous cost. 
They say there is a point at which the Atlantic may be 
reached more easily than by the present route of the Sera- 
piqui river ; nothing, however, has as yet been done in the 
matter. To make a road fit even for mule carts, by the 
course of the present track, would certainly be a work of 
enormous difficulty. 

And now our vexations commenced. We found that 
the path very soon narrowed, so much so that it was with 
difficulty we could keep our hats on our heads ; and then 
the surface of the path became softer and softer, till our 
beasts were up to their knees in mud. All motion quicker 
than that of a walk became impossible ; and even at this 
pace the struggles in the mud were both frequent and un- 
comfortable. Hitherto we had talked fluently enough, but 
now we became very silent ; we went on following, each 
at the other's tail, floundering in the mud, silent, filthy, 
and down in the mouth. 

' I tell you what it is,' said Fitzm at last, stopping 

on the road, for he had led the van, 6 1 can't go any further 
without breakfast.' We referred the matter to the guide, 
and found that Careblanco, the place appointed for our 
next stage, was still two hours distant. 

' Two hours ! Why, half an hour since you said it was 
only a league !' But what is the use of expostulating 
with a man who can't speak a word of English ? 

So we got off our mules, and dragged out our wallet 
among the bushes. Gur hard-boiled eggs were all gone, 
and it seemed as though the travelling did not add fresh 
delights to the cold beef: so we devoured another fowl, 
and washed it down with brandy and water. 

As we were so engaged three men passed us with heavy 
burdens on their backs. They were tall, thin, muscular 
fellows, with bare legs, and linen clothes,— one of them 



304 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 



apparently of nearly pure Indian blood. It was clear that 
the loads they carried were very weighty, They were 
borne high up on the back, and suspended by a band from 
the forehead, so that a great portion of the weight must 
have fallen on the muscles of the neck. This was the 
post ; and as they had left San Jose some eight hours after 
us, and had come by a longer route, so as to take in another 
town, they must have travelled at a very fast pace. It 
was our object to go down the Serapiqui river in the same 
boat with the post. We had some doubt whether we 
should be able to get any other, seeing that the owner of 
one such canoe had been drowned, I believe in an endea- 
vour to save the unfortunate lady of whom I have spoken ; 
and any boat taken separately would be much more expen- 
sive. 

So, as quick as might be, we tied up our fragments and 
proceeded. It was after this that I really learned how all- 
powerful is the force of mud. "We came at last to a track 
that was divided crossways by ridges, somewhat like the 
ridges of ploughed ground. Each ridge was perhaps a 
foot and a half broad, and the mules invariably stepped 
between them, not on them. Stepping on them they could 
not have held their feet. Stepping between them they 
came at each step with their belly to the ground, so that 
the rider's feet and legs were trailing in the mud. The 
struggles of the poor brutes were dreadful. It seemed to 
me frequently impossible that my beast should extricate 
himself, laden as he was. But still he went on patiently, 
slowly, and continuously ; splash, splash ; slosh, slosh ! 
Every muscle of his body was working ; and every muscle 
of my body was working also. 

For it is not very easy to sit upon a mule under such 
circumstances. The bushes were so close upon me that 
one hand w T as required to guard my face from the thorns ; 
my knees were constantly in contact with the stumps of 



SAN JOSE TO GREYTOWiST. 



305 



trees, and when my knees were free from such difficulties, 
my shins were sure to be in the wars. Then the poor 
animal rolled so from side to side in his incredible struggles 
with the mud that it was frequently necessary to hold 
myself on by the pommel of the saddle. Added to this, 
it was essentially necessary to keep some sort of guide 
upon the creature's steps, or one's legs would be absolutely 
broken. For the mule cares for himself only, and not for 
his rider. It is nothing to him if a man's knees be put 
out of joint against the stump of a tree. 

Splash, splash, slosh, slosh! on we went in this way 
for hours, almost without speaking. On such occasions 
one is apt to become mentally cross, to feel that the world 
is too hard for one, that one's own especial troubles are 
much worse than those of one's neighbours, and that those 
neighbours are unfairly favoured. I could not help think- 
ing it very unjust that I should be fifteen stone, while 

Fitzm was only eight. And as for that distressed 

Britisher, he weighed nothing at all. 

Splash, splash, slosh, slosh ! we were at it all day. At 
Careblanco— the place of the white-faced pigs I understood 
it to mean ; — they say that there is a race of wild hogs 
with white faces which inhabit the woods hereabouts — 
we overtook the post, and kept close to them afterwards. 
This was a pasture farm in the very middle of the forest, 
a bit of cleared land on which some adventurer had settled 
himself and dared to live. The adventurer himself was 
not there, but he had a very pretty wife, with whom my 
friend the lieutenant seemed to have contracted an inti- 
mate acquaintance on his previous journey up to San 
Jose. 

But at Careblanco we only stopped two minutes, during 
which, however, it became necessary that the lieutenant 
should go into the rancho on the matter of some article of 
clothes which had been left behind on his previous jour- 

x 



306 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



ney ; and then, again, on we went, slosh, slosh, splash, 
splash ! My shins by this time were black and blue, and 
I held myself on to my mule chiefly by my spurs. Our 
way . was still through dense forest, and was always either 
up or down hill. And here we came across the grandest 
scenery that I met with in the western world ; scenery 
which would admit of raving, if it were given to me to 
rave on such a subject. 

We were travelling for the most part along the side of 
a volcanic mountain, and every now and then the declivity 
would become so steep as to give us a full view down into 
the ravine below, with the prospect of the grand, steep, 
wooded hill on the other side, one huge forest stretching 
up the mountain for miles. At the bottom of the ravine 
one's eye would just catch a river, looking like a moving 
thread of silver wire. And yet, though the descent was 
so great, there would be no interruption to it. Looking 
down over the thick forest trees which grew almost from 
the side of a precipice, the eye would reach the river 
some thousand feet below, and then ascend on the other 
side over a like unbroken expanse of foliage. 

Of course we both declared that we had never seen 
anything to equal it. In moments of ecstacy one always 
does so declare. But there was a monotony about it, and a 
want of grouping which forbids me to place it on an equality 
with scenery really of the highest kind, with the moun- 
tains, for instance, round Colico, with the head of the Lake 
of the Four Cantons, or even with the views of the upper 
waters of Killarney. 

And then, to speak the truth, we were too much en- 
gulfed in mud, too thoughtful as to the troubles of the 
road, to enjoy it thoroughly. ' Wonderful that ; isn't it ?' 
' Yes, very wonderful ; fine break ; for heaven's sake do 
get on.' That is the tone which men are apt to adopt 
under such circumstances. Five or six pounds of thick 



SAN JOSE TO GREYTWX. 



307 



mud clinging round one's boots and inside one's trousers 
do not add to one's enjoyment of scenery. 

Mud, mud ; mud, mud ! At about five o'clock we 
splashed into another pasture farm in the middle of the 

' forest, a place called San Miguel, and there we rested for 
that night. Here we found that our beef also must be 
thrown away, and that our bread was all gone. We had 
picked up some more hard-boiled eggs at ranchos on the 
road, but hard-boiled eggs to my companion were no more 
than grains of gravel to a barn-door fowl ; they merely 
enabled him to enjoy his regular diet. At this place, 
however, we were able to purchase fowls — skinny old 
hens which were shot for us at a moment's warning ; 
the price being, here and elsewhere along the road, a 
dollar a head. Tea and candles a ministering angel had 
given to me at the moment of my departure from San 
Jose'. But for them we should have indeed been com- 
fortless, thirsty, and in utter darkness. Towards evening 
a man gets tired of brandy and water, when he has been 
drinking it since six in the morning 

Our washing was done under great difficulties, as in 
these districts neither nature nor art seems to have pro- 
vided for such emergencies. In this place I got my head 
into a tin pot, and could hardly extricate it. But even 
inside the houses and ranchos everything seemed to turn 
into mud. The floor beneath one's feet became mud with 
the splashing of the water. The boards were begrimed 
with mud. We were offered coffee that was mud to the 
taste and touch. I felt that the blood in my veins was 
becoming muddy. 

And then we had another day exactly like the former, 
except that the ground was less steep, and the vistas of 
scenery less grand. The weather also was warmer, seeing 

| that we were now on lower ground. Monkeys chattered 
on the trees around us, and the little congo ape roared 



308 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 



like a lion. Macaws flew about, generally in pairs ; and 
we saw white turkeys on the trees. Up on the higher 
forests we had seen none of these animals. 

There are wild hogs also in these woods, and ounces. 
The ounce here is, I believe, properly styled the puma, 
though the people always call them lions. They grow 
to about the size of a Newfoundland dog. The wild cat 
also is common here, the people styling them tigers. The 
xagua is, I take it, their proper name. None of these 
animals will, I believe, attack a man unless provoked or 
pressed in pursuit ; and not even then if a way of escape 
be open to him. 

We again breakfasted at a forest clearing, paying a 
dollar each for tough old hens, and in the evening we 
came to a cacao plantation in the middle of the forest 
which had been laid out and settled by an American of 
the United States residing in Central America. This 
place is not far from the Serapiqui river, and is called 
Padregal. It was here that the young lieutenant had 
read the funeral service over the body cf that unfortunate 
lady. 

I went with him to visit the grave. It was a spot in 
the middle of a grass enclosure, fenced off rudely so as 
to guard it from beasts of prey. The funeral had taken 
place after dusk. It had been attended by some twelve 
or fourteen Costa Bican soldiers who are kept in a fort 
a little below, on the banks of the Serapiqui. Each of 
these men had held a torch. The husband was there, 
and another Englishman who was travelling with him; 
as was also, I believe, the proprietor of the place. So 
attended, the body of the Englishwoman was committed 
to its strange grave in a strange country. 

Here we picked up another man, an American, who 
also had been looking for gold, and perhaps doing a turn 
as a filibuster. Him too the world had used badly, and 



SAX JOSE TO GREYTOWK 



309 



lie was about to return with all his golden dreams unac- 
complished. 

We had one more stage down to the spot at which we 
were to embark in the canoe — the spot at which the 
lady had been drowned — and this one we accomplished 
early in the morning. This place is called the Muelle, 
and here there is a fort with a commandant and a small 
company of soldiers. The business of the commandant 
is to let no one up or down the river without a passport ; 
and as a passport cannot be procured anvwhere nearer 
than San Jose, here may arise a great difficulty to tra- 
vellers. We were duly provided, but our recentiy-picked- 
up American friend was not ; and he was simply told that 
he would not be allowed to get into a boat on the river. 

■ I never seed such a d — d country in my life/ said 
the American. 6 They would not let me leave San Jose 
till I Daid everv shilling I owed : and now that I have 
paid, I ain't no better off. I wish I hadn't paid a d — d 
cent.' 

I advised him to try what some further operation in 
the way of payment would do, and with this view he re- 
tired with the commandant. In a minute or two they 
both returned, and the commandant said he would look at 
his instructions again. He did so, and declared that he 
now found it was compatible with his public duty to allow 
the American to pass. i But I shall not have a cent left 
to take me home,' said the American to me. He was 
not a smart man, though he talked smart: for when 
the moment of departure came all the places in the boat 
were taken, and we left him standing on the shore. 
'Well, I'm darned!' he said; and we neither heard 
nor saw more of him. 

That passage down the Serapiqui was not without in- 
terest, though it was somewhat monotonous. Here, for 
the first time in my life, I found my bulk and size to be 



310 



CENTKAL AMEEICA. 



of advantage to me. In the after part of the canoe sat 
the master boatman, the captain of the expedition, steer- 
ing with a paddle. Then came the mails and our luggage, 
and next to them I sat, having a seat to myself, being 
too weighty to share a bench with a neighbour. I there- 
fore could lean back among the luggage; and with a 
cigar in my mouth and a little wooden bicker of weak 
brandy and water beside me I found that the position 
had its charms. 

On the next thwart sat, cheek by jowl, the lieutenant 
and the distressed Britisher. Unfortunately they had 
nothing on which to lean, and I sincerely pitied my 
friend, who, I fear, did not enjoy his position. But what 
could I do? Any change in our arrangements would 
have upset the canoe. And then close in the bow of the 
boat sat the two natives paddling ; and they did paddle 
without cessation all that day, and all the next till we 
reached Greytown. 

The Serapiqui is a fine river ; very rapid, but not so 
much so as to make it dangerous, if care be taken to 
avoid the snags. There is not a house or hut on either 
side of it ; but the forest comes down to the very brink. 
Up in the huge trees the monkeys hung jabbering, shak- 
ing their ugly heads at the boat as it went down, or 
screaming in anger at this invasion of their territories. 
The macaws flew high over head, making their own music, 
and then there was the constant little splash of the paddle 
in the water. The boatmen spoke no word, but worked 
on always, pausing now and again for a moment to drink 
out of the hollow of their hands. And the sun became 
hotter and hotter as we neared the sea ; and the musqui- 
toes began to bite; and cigars were lit with greater 
frequency. 'Tis thus that one goes down the waters of 
the Serapiqui. 

About three we got into the San Juan. This is the 



SAN JOSE TO GKEYTOWN. 



311 



liver by which the great lake of Nicaragua empties itself 
into the sea ; which has been the channel used by the 
transit companies who have passed from ocean to ocean 
through Nicaragua ; which has been so violently inter- 
fered with by filibusters, till all such transit has been 
banished from its waters ; and which has now been 
selected by M. Belly as the course for his impossible 
canal. It has seen dreadful scenes of cruelty, wrong, 
and bloodshed. Now it runs along peaceably enough, 
in its broad, shallow, swift course, bearing on its margin 
here and there the rancho and provision-ground of some 
wild settler who has sought to overcome 

' The whips and scorns of time — 
The oppressors wrong, the proud man's contumely,' 

by looking for bread and shelter on those sad, sunburnt, 
and solitary banks. 

We landed at one such place to dine, and at another 
to sleep, selecting in each place some better class of 
habitation. At neither place did we find the owner 
there, but persons left in charge of the place. At the 
first the man was a German ; a singularly handsome and 
dirty individual, who never shaved or washed himself, 
and lived there, ever alone, on bananas and musk-melons. 
He gave us fruit to take into the boat with us, and when 
we parted we shook hands with him. Out here every 
one always does shake hands with every one. But as I 
did so I tendered him a dollar. He had waited upon us, 
bringing water and plates : he had gathered fruit for us ; 
and he was, after all, no more than the servant of the 
river squatter. But he let the dollar fall to the ground, 
and that with some anger in his face. The sum was 
made up of the small silver change of the country, and 
I felt rather little as I stooped under the hot sun to 
pick it up from out the mud of the garden. Better that 



312 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



than seem to leave it there in anger. It is often hard 
for a traveller to know when he is wished to pay, and 
when he is wished not to pay. A poorer-looking indivi- 
dual in raiment and position than that German I have 
seldom seen ; but he despised my dollar as though it had 
been dirt. 

We slept at the house of a Greytown merchant, who 
had maintained an establishment up the river, originally 
with the view of supplying the wants of the American 
travellers passing in transit across the isthmus. The 
flat-bottom steamers which did some five or six years 
since ply upon the river used to take in wood here and 
stop for the night. And the passengers were wont to 
come on shore, and call for rum and brandy; and in 
this way much money was made. Till after a time fili- 
busters came instead of passengers; men who took all 
the wood that they could find there — hundreds of dollars' 
worth of sawn wood, and brandy also — took it away with 
therm saying that they would give compensation when 
they w T ere established in the country, but made no present 
payment. And then it became tolerably clear that the 
time for making money in that locality had passed away. 

They came in great numbers on one such occasion, 
and stripped away everything they could find. Sawn 
wood for their steam-boilers was especially desirable, and 
they took all that had been prepared for the usual wants 
of the river. Having helped themselves to this, and 
such other chattels as were at the moment needed and 
at hand, they went on their way, grimly rejoicing. On 
the following day most of them returned ; some without 
arms, some without legs, some even without heads; a 
wretched, wounded, mutilated, sore-struck body of fili- 
busters. The boiler of their large steamer had burst, 
scattering destruction far and near. It was current 
among the filibusters that the logs of wood had been 



SAX JOSE TO GKEYTOWX. 



313 



laden with gunpowder in order to effect this damage. 
It is more probable, that being filibusters, rough and 
ready as the phrase goes, they had not duly looked to 
their engineering properties. At any rate, they all re- 
turned. On the whole, these filibusters have suffered dire 
punishment for their sins. 

At any rate, the merchant under whose roof we slept 
received no payment for his wood. Here we found two 
men living, not in such squalid misery as that indepen- 
dent German, but nevertheless sufficiently isolated from 
the world. One was an old Swedish sailor, who seemed 
to speak every language under the sun, and to have been 
in every portion of the globe, whether under the sun or 
otherwise. At any rate we could not induce him to own 
to not having been in any place. Timbuctoo ; yes, in- 
deed, he had unfortunately been a captive there foi 
three years. At Mecca he had passed as an Arab among 
the Arabs, having made the great pilgrimage in company 
with many children of Mahomet, wearing the green 
turban as a veritable child of Mahomet himself. Ports- 
mouth he knew well, having had many a row about the 
Hard. We could not catch him tripping, though we put 
him through his facings to the best of our ioint o-eo- 
graphical knowledge. At present he was a poor gardener 
on the San Juan river, having begun life as a lieutenant 
in the Swedish navy. He had seen too much of the 
world to refuse the dollar which was offered to him. 

On the next morning we reached Grey town, following 
the San Juan river down to that pleasant place. There 
is another passage out to the sea by the Colerado, a branch 
river which, striking out from the San Juan, runs into 
the ocean by a shorter channel. This also has been 
thought of as a course for the projected canal, preferable 
to that of the San Juan. I believe them to be equally 
impracticable. The San Juan river itself is so shallow 



314 



CENTKAL AMEEICA. 



that we were frequently on the ground even in our light 
canoe. 

And what shall I say of Grey town? We have a 
Consul-General there, or at least had one when these pages 
were written ; a Consul-General whose duty it is, or was, 
to have under his special care the King of Mosquitia — as 
some people are pleased to call this coast — of the Mosquito 
coast as it is generally styled, Bluefields, further along 
the coast, is the chosen residence of this sable tyrant ; 
but Greytown is the capital of his dominions. Now it 
is believed that, in deference to the feelings of the United 
States, and to the American reading of the Clayton-Bul- 
wer treaty, and in deference, 1 may add, to a very sensible 
consideration that the matter is of no possible moment to 
ourselves, the protectorate of the Mosquito coast is to be 
abandoned. What the king will do I cannot imagine ; 
but it will be a happy day I should think for our Consul 
when he is removed from Greytown. 

Of all the places in which I have ever put my foot I 
think that this is the most wretched. It is a small town, 
perhaps of two thousand inhabitants, though this on my 
part is a mere guess, at the mouth of the San Juan, and 
surrounded on every side either by water or impassable 
forests. A walk of a mile in any direction would be im- 
possible, unless along the beach of the sea ; but this is of 
less importance, as the continual heat would prevent any 
one from thinking of such exercise. Sundry Americans 
live here, worshipping the almighty dollar as Americans 
do, keeping liquor shops and warehouses ; and with the 
Americans, sundry Englishmen and sundry Germans. 
Of the female population I saw nothing except some 
negro women, and one white, or rather red-faced owner 
of a rum shop. The native population are the Mosquito 
Indians ; but it seems that they are hardly allowed to 
live in Greytown. They are to be seen paddling about 



SAX JOSE TO GREYTOWN. 



315 



in their canoes, selling a few eggs and chickens, catching 
turtle, and not rarely getting drunk. They would seem 
from their colour and physiognomy to be a cross between 
the negro and the Indian ; and such I imagine to be the 
case. They have a language of their own, but those on 
the coast almost always speak English also. 

My gallant young friend, Fitzm , was in command 

of a small schooner inside the harbour of Greytown. As 
the accommodation of the city itself was not inviting, I 
gladly took up my quarters under his flag until the Eng- 
lish packet, which was then hourly expected, should be 
ready to carry me to Colon and St. Thomas. I can 
only say that if I was commander of that schooner I 
would lie outside the harbour, so as to be beyond the ill- 
usage of those frightful musquitoes. The country has 
been well named Mosquitia. 

There was an American man-of-war and also an English 
man-of-war — sloops-of-war both I believe technically — 
lying off Greytown ; and we dined on board them both, 
on two consecutive days. Of the American I will say, 
speaking in their praise, that I never ate such bacon and 
peas. It may be that the old hens up the Serapiqui river 
had rendered me peculiarly susceptible to such delights ; 
but nevertheless, I shall always think that there was 
something peculiar about the bacon and peas on board the 
American sloop-of-war 1 St. Louis.' 

And on the second day the steamer came in ; the 
4 Trent,' Captain Moir ; we then dined on board of her, 
and on the same night she sailed for Colon. And when 
shall I see that gallant young lieutenant again ? Putting 
aside his unjust, and I must say miraculous, consumption 
of hard-boiled eggs, I could hardly wish for a better 
travelling companion. 



( 316 ) 



CHAPTER XXL 

CENTRAL AMERICA — RAILWAYS, CANALS, AND TRANSIT. 

How best to get about this world which God has given 
us is certainly one of the most interesting subjects which 
men have to consider, and one of the most interesting 
works on which men can employ themselves. 

The child when born is first suckled, then fed with a 
spoon ; in his next stage his food is cut up for him, and 
he begins to help himself; for some years after that it is 
still carved under parental authority ; and then at last 
he sits down to the full enjoyment of his own leg of 
mutton under his own auspices. 

Our development in travelling has been much of the 
same sort, and we are now perhaps beginning to use our 
own knife and fork, though we hardly yet understand the 
science of carving ; or at any rate, can hardly bring our 
hands to the duly dexterous use of the necessary tools. 

We have at least got so far as this, that we perceive 
that the leg of mutton is to be cooked and carved. We 
are not to eat hunks of raw sheep cut off here and there. 
The meat to suit our palates should be put on a plate in 
the guise of a cleanly slice, cut to a certain thickness, and 
not exceeding a certain size. 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AXD TRANSIT. 



317 



And we have also got so far as this, that we know that 
the world must be traversed by certain routes, prepared 
for us originally not by ourselves, but by the hand of 
God. We were great heroes when we first got round 
the Cape of Good Hope, when we first crossed the 
Atlantic, when we first doubled Cape Horn. We were 
then learning to pick up our crumbs with our earliest 
knives and forks, and there was considerable peril in the 
attempt. We have got beyond that now, and have per- 
ceived that we may traverse the world without going 
round it. The road from Europe to Asia is by Egypt 
and the Isthmus of Suez, not by the Cape of Good Hope. 
So also is the road from Europe to the West of America, 
and from the East of America to Asia by the isthmus of 
Central America, and not by Cape Horn. 

We have found out this, and have, I presume, found 
out also that this was all laid out for us by the hands of 
the Creator, — prepared exactly as the sheep have been 
prepared. It has been only necessary that we should 
learn to use the good things given us. 

That there are reasons why the way should not have 
been made absolutely open we may well suppose, though 
we cannot perhaps at present well understand. How 
currents of the sea might have run so as to have impeded 
rather than have assisted navigation, had the two Americas 
been disjoined ; how pernicious winds might have blown, 
and injurious waters have flowed, had the Eed Sea opened 
into the Mediterranean, we may imagine, though we can- 
not know. That the world's surface, as formed by God, 
is best for God's purposes, and therefore certainly best for 
man's purposes, that most of us must believe. 

But it is for us to carve the good things which are put 
before us, and to find out the best way in which they 
may be carved. We may, perhaps, fairly think that we 
have done much towards acquiring this knowledge, but 



318 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



we certainly know that there is more "yet to be done. 
We have lines of railways from London to Manchester ; 
from Calais across France and all the Germanies to 
Eastern Europe ; from the coast of Maine, through the 
Canadas, to the central territories of the United States ; 
but there are no lines yet from New York to California, 
nor from the coast of the Levant to Bombay and Calcutta. 

But perhaps the two greatest points which are at this 
moment being mooted with reference to the carriage 
about the world of mankind and man's goods, concern 
the mode in which we may most advantageously pass 
across the isthmuses of Suez and Panama. These are 
the two land obstacles in the way of navigation, of direct 
water carriage round the earth's belt — obstacles as they 
appear to us, though in truth so probably locks formed by 
the Almighty for the assistance of our navigation. 

For many years, it is impossible to say how many, but 
for some few centuries as regards Panama, and for many 
centuries as regards Suez, this necessity has been felt, and 
the minds of men in those elder days inclined naturally to 
canals. In the days of the old kings of Egypt, antecedent 
to Cleopatra, attempts were made to cut through the sands 
and shallow lakes from the eastern margin of the Nile's 
delta to the Red Sea ; and the idea of piercing Central 
America in some point occurred to the Spaniards imme- 
diately on their discovering the relative position of the 
two oceans. But in those days men were infants, not as 
yet trusted with the carving-knife. 

The work which unsuccessfully filled the brains of so 
many thoughtful men for so many years has now been 
done — at any rate to a degree. Railways have been 
completed from Alexandria on the Mediterranean to Suez 
on the Red Sea, and from Panama on the Pacific, to 
Aspinwall or Colon on the Caribbean Sea. These rail- 
ways are now at work, and passengers are carried across 



RAILWAYS, CAXALS, AND TRANSIT. 



319 



with sufficient rapidity. The Isthmus of Suez, over 
which the line of railway runs for something over two 
hundred miles, creates a total delay to our Indian mails 
and passengers of twenty-four hours only, and the lesser 
distance of the American isthmus is traversed in three 
hours. Were rapidity here as necessary as it is in the 
other case — and it will doubtless become so— the convey- 
ance from one sea to the other need not create a delay of 
above twelve hours. 

But not the less are many men — good and scientific 
men too — keenly impressed with the idea that the two 
isthmuses should be pierced with canals, although these 
railways are at work. All mankind has heard much of 
M. Lesseps and his Suez canal. On that matter I do not 
mean to say much here. I have a very strong opinion 
that such canal will not and cannot be made ; that all the 
strength of the arguments adduced in the matter are 
hostile to it ; and that steam navigation by land will and 
ought to be the means of transit through Egypt. But 
that matter is a long way distant from our present sub- 
ject. It is with reference to the transit over the other 
isthmus that I propose to say a few words. 

It is singular, or perhaps, if rightly considered, not 
singular, that both the railways have been constructed 
mainly by Anglo-Saxon science and energy, and under 
the pressure of Anglo-Saxon influence ; while both the 
canal schemes most prevalent at the present day owe 
their repute to French eloquence and French enthusiasm. 
M. Lesseps is the patron of the Suez canal, and M. 
Belly of that which is, or is not to be, constructed from 
San Juan del Norte, or Grreytown, to the shores of the Pacific. 

There are three proposed methods of crossing the 
isthmus, that by railway, that by canal, and a third 
by the ordinary use of such ordinary means of convey- 
ance as the land and the waters of the country afford. 



320 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



As regards railway passage, one line being now open 
and at work, has those nine points in its favour which 
possession gives. It does convey men and goods across 
with great rapidity, and is a reality, doing that which it 
pretends to do. Its charges, however, are very high; 
and it would doubtless be well if competition, or fear of 
competition, could be made to lower them. Five pounds 
is charged for conveying a passenger less than fifty miles ; 
no class of passengers can cross at a cheaper fare ; and the 
rates charged for goods are as high in comparison. On 
the other side, it may be said that the project was one of 
great risk, that the line was from its circumstances very 
costly, having been made at an expense of about thirty-two 
thousand pounds a mile — I believe, however, that a con- 
siderable portion of the London and Birmingham line 
was equally expensive — and that trains by which money 
can be made cannot run often, perhaps only six or seven 
times a month each way. 

It is, however, very desirous that the fares should be 
lowered, and the great profits accruing to the railway 
prove that this may be done. Eventually they doubtless 
will be lowered. 

The only other line of railway which now seems to be 
spoken of as practicable for the passage of the isthmus is 
one the construction, of which has been proposed across 
the republic of Honduras, from a spot called Port Cortez, 
in the Bay of Honduras, on the northern or Atlantic 
side, to some harbour to be chosen in the Bay of Fonseca, 
on the southern or Pacific side. Mr. Squier, who was 
Charge d' Affaires from the United States to Central 
America, and whose work on the republics of Central 
America is well known, strongly advocates this line, 
showing in the first place that from its position it would 
suit the traffic of the United States much better than 
that of Panama ; as undoubtedly it would, seeing that the 



RAILWAYS, CAXALS, AXD TRANSIT. 321 



transit from New York to California, via Panama, must 
go down south as far as latitude 7° north ; whereas, by the 
proposed route through Honduras it need not descend 
below lat. 13° north, thus saving double that distance in the 
total run each way.* Mr. Squier then goes on to prove 
that the country of Honduras is in every way suited for 
the purposes of a railway; but here I am not sure that 
he carries me with him. The road would have to ascend 
nearly three thousand feet above the sea-level ; and though 
it may be true that the grades themselves would not be 
more severe than many that are now to be found on rail- 
ways in full work in other countries, nevertheless it must 
be felt that the overcoming such an altitude in such a 
country, and the working over it when overcome, would 
necessarily add greatly to the original cost of the line, 
and the subsequent cost of running. The Panama line 
goes through a country comparatively level. Then the 
distance across Honduras is one hundred and fifty miles, 
and it is computed that the line would be two hundred 
miles : the length of the Panama line is forty -seven or 
forty-eight miles. 

The enormous cost of the Panama line arose from the 
difficulty of obtaining the necessary sort of labour. The 
natives would not work as they were wanted, and Europeans 

* Xot that we may take all that Mr. Squier says on this subject 
as proved. His proposed route for the traffic of the United States 
is from the western coast of Florida to the chosen port, Port Correz, 
in Honduras; and he attempts to show that this is pretty nearly 
the only possible passage in those seas free from huricanes and 
danger. But this passage is right across the Gulf of Mexico, and 
vessels would have to stem the full force of the gulf-stream on their 
passage down from Florida. 

In all such matters where a man becomes warm on a scheme, he 
feels himself compelled to prove that the gods themselves have 
pointed out his plan as the only one fit for adoption — as tho only 
one free from all evil — and blessed with every advantage. We are 
always over-proving our points. 

Y 



322 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

died there ; so that, at last, labour was imported from the 
coast of New Grranada. At the high level named as the 
summit of the Honduras route, the climate would no doubt 
be comparatively mild, and labour easy to be borne ; but 
near the coast of the Bays, both of Honduras and Fonseca, 
the heat would be as great as at Aspinwall and Panama, 
and the effects probably the same. 

As regards our British traffic, the route by the Isthmus 
of Panama is the better situated of the two. Looking at a 
map of the world — and it is necessary to take in the whole 
world, in order that the courses of British trade may be 
seen — it does not seem to be of much consequence, as re- 
gards distance, whether a bale of goods from London to 
Sydney should pass the isthmus by Honduras or Panama ; 
but in fact, even for this route, the former would labour 
under great disadvantages. A ship in making its way 
from Honduras up to Jamaica has to fight against the trade 
winds. On this account our mail steamer from Belize to 
Jamaica is timed only at four miles an hour, though the 
mail to Honduras is timed at eight miles an hour. This 
would be the direct route from the terminus of the Hon- 
duras line to Europe, and matters would be made only 
worse if any other line were taken. But the track from 
Panama to Jamaica is subject to what sailors call a soldier's 
wind ; even working to St. Thomas, and thereby getting 
a stronger slant of the trade winds against them, our mail 
steamers can make eight or nine miles an hour. 

As regards our trade to Chili and Peru, it is clear that 
Honduras is altogether out of our way ; and as regards our 
coming trade to Frazer Eiver and Vancouver's Island, 
though the absolute distance, via Honduras, would be some- 
thing shorter, that benefit would be neutralized by the dis- 
advantageous position of the Bay of Honduras as above 
explained. 

But the great advantage which the Panama line enjoys 



RAILWAYS, CAXALS, AND TEANSIT. 



323 



is the fact of its being already made. It has the nine 
points ivhich possession gives it. Its forty-eight miles cost 
one million six hundred thousand pounds. It cannot be 
presumed that two hundred miles through Honduras could 
be made for double that sum ; and seeing that the Hon- 
duras line would be in opposition to the other, and only be 
used if running at fares lower than those of its rival, I 
cannot see how it would pay, or where the money is to 
be procured. I am not aware that the absolute cost of the 
proposed line through Honduras has been accurately com- 
puted. 

As regards the public interest, two lines would no doubt 
be better than one. Competition is always beneficial to 
the consumer ; but in this case, I do not expect to see 
the second line made in our days. That there will in 
future days be a dozen ways of commodiously crossing the 
isthmus — when we have thoroughly learned how best to 
carve our leg of mutton — I do not at all doubt. 

It may be as well to state here that England is bound 
by a treaty with Honduras, made in 1836, to assist in 
furthering the execution of this work by our countenance, 
aid, and protection, on condition that when made, we 
Britishers are to have the full use of it : as much so, at 
least, as any other people or nation. And that, as I take 
it. is the sole and only meaning of all those treaties made 
on our behalf with Central America, or in respect to Cen- 
tral America — Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, new Ouseley Treaty, 
and others : namely, that we, who are desirous of excluding 
no person from the benefits of this public world-road, are 
not ourselves to be excluded on any consideration what- 
ever. And may we not boast that this is the only object 
looked for in all our treaties and diplomatic doings ? Is it 
not for that reason that we hold Gibraltar, are jealous about 
Egypt, and resolved to have Perim in our power ? Is it 
not true that we would fain make all ways open to all 

Y 2 



324 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



men ? that we would have them open to ouiselves, cer- 
tainly, but not closed against any human being ? If that, 
and such like, be not what our diplomatists are doing, then 
I, for one, misunderstand their trade. 

So much for the two railways, and now as to the pro- . 
posed canals. Here no happy undertaking can boast of 
the joys of possession. No canal is as yet open, carrying 
men and goods with, shall we say, twenty-live per cent, 
profit on the outlay. Ah ! that is an elysium which does 
not readily repeat itself. 0 thou thrice happy Colonel 
Totten, who hast constructed a railway resulting in such 
celestial beatitude ! 

The name of canals projected across the isthmus has 
been legion, and the merits of them all have in their time 
been hotly pressed by their special advocates. That most 
to the north, which was the passage selected by Cortes and 
pressed by him on the Spanish government, would pass 
through Mexico. The line would be from the Gulf of 
Campechay, up the river Coatzacoalcoz, to Tehuantepec 
on the Pacific. This was advocated as lately as 1845, but 
has now, I believe, been abandoned as impracticable. 
Going south down the map, the next proposition of which 
I can find mention is for a canal from the head of the Lake 
of Dulce through the state of Guatemala; the Lake or 
Gulf of Dulce being at the head of the Gulf of Honduras. 
This also seems to have been abandoned. Then we come 
to the proposed Honduras railway of which mention has 
been made. 

Next below this we reach a cluster of canals, all going 
through the great inland lake of Nicaragua. This scheme, 
or one of these schemes, has also been in existence since 
the times of the early Spaniards ; and has been adhered to 
with more or less pertinacity ever since. This Lake of 
Nicaragua was to be reached either direct by the river 
San Juan, or by entering the river San Juan from the 



RAILWAYS, CAXALS, AND TRANSIT. 



ocean by the river Colorado, which is in effect a branch of 
the San Juan ; the projected canal would thus ascend to 
the lake. From thence to the Pacific various passages for 
egress have been suggested; at first it was intended, 
naturally, to get out at the nearest practicable point, that 
being probably at San Juan del Sur. They have San 
Juans and San Joses quite at pleasure about these countries. 

Then came the grand plan of the present French emperor, 
bearing at least his name, and first published, I think, in 
1846. This was a very grand plan, of course. The route 
of ' transit ' was to be right up the Lake of Nicaragua to 
its northern point ; there the canal was to enter the River 
Tipitapa, and come out again in the northern Lake of 
Managua; from thence it was to be taken out to the 
Pacific at the port of Eealejo. This project included the 
building of an enormous city, which was to contain the 
wealth of the new world, and to be, as it were, a new 
Constantinople between the two lakes ; but the scheme has 
been abandoned as being too costly, too imperial. 

And now we have M. Belly's scheme ; his scheme and 
pamphlet of which I will say a few words just now, and 
therefore I pass on to the others. 

The line of the River Chargres, and from thence to the 
town of Panama — being very nearly the line of the present 
railway — was long contemplated with favour, but has now 
been abandoned as impracticable ; as has also the line over 
the Isthmus of Darien, which was for a while thought to 
be the most feasible, as being the shortest. The lie of the 
land, however, and the nature of the obstacles to be over- 
come, have put this scheme altogether out of the question. 

Next and last is the course of the River Atrato, which 
runs into the Gulf of Darien, but which is, in fact, the 
first of the great rivers of South America ; first, that is, 
counting them as commencing from the isthmus. It runs 
down from the Andes parallel to the coast of the Pacific, 



326 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



and is navigable for many miles. The necessary surveys, 
however, for connecting this river with the Pacific have 
never yet been made ; and even if this plan were practi- 
cable, the extremely low latitude at which the Pacific ocean 
would be reached would make such a line bad for our trade, 
and quite out of the question for the chief portion of the 
American ' transit.' 

It appears, therefore, that there are insuperable ob- 
jections to all these canal routes, unless it be to some route 
passing through the Lake of Nicaragua. By reference to 
a map of Central America it will be seen that the waters 
of this lake, joined to those of the San Juan river, comprise 
the breadth of nearly the whole isthmus, leaving a distance 
not exceeding twenty miles to be conquered by a canal. At 
first sight this appears to be very enticing, and M. Belly 
has been enticed. He has been enticed, or at any rate 
writes as though this were the case. Anything worded 
more eloquently, energetically, and grandiloquently, than 
his pamphlet in favour of this route I have not met, even 
among French pamphlets. 

M. Felix Belly describes himself as a ' publiciste,' and 
chevalier of the order of Saint Maurice and Lazarus, and 
of the order of Medjidie. As such he has made a conven- 
tion with Don Thomas Martinez, President of the republic 
of Nicaragua, and with Don Juan Kafael Mora, President 
of the republic of Costa Pica, in accordance with which he, 
Chevalier Belly, is to cut a canal or water route for ships 
through the territories of those potentates, obtaining there- 
by certain vast privileges, including the possession of no 
small portion of those territories, and the right of levying 
all manner of tolls on the world's commerce which is to 
pass through his canal. And the potentates above named 
are in return to receive from M. Belly very considerable 
subsidies out of these tolls. They bind themselves, more- 
over, to permit no other traffic or transit through ihwr 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AND TRANSIT. 



327 



country, securing to M. Belly for ninety-nine years the 
monopoly of the job : and granting to him the great diplo- 
matic privilege of constituting his canal, let it be here or 
there, the boundary of the realms of these two potentates. 

What strikes me with the greatest wonder on reading 
— not the pamphlet, for that is perhaps more wonderful 
in other respects — but the articles of the convention, is, that 
these three persons, the potentates aforesaid and the cheva- 
lier, should have among them the power of doing all this ; 
or that they should even have had the power of agreeing 
to do all this ; for really up to this period one seems hardly 
to have heard in England much about any one of them. 

That there should be presidents of these two republics 
is supposed, as there are also, doubtless, of San Salvador 
and Venezuela, and all the other western republics ; but 
it is to be presumed that as presidents of republics they 
can have themselves no more power to give away a 
ninety-nine years' possession of their lands and waters 
than can any other citizen. Mr. Buchanan could hardly 
sell to any Englishman, however enterprising, the right 
of making a railway from JSTew York to San Francisco. 
The convention does certainly bear two other signatures, 
which purport to be those of the ministers of foreign 
affairs attached to those two republics ; but even this 
hardly seems to give us a sufficient guarantee of power. 
What if we should put our money into the canal, and 
future presidents should refuse to be bound by the agree- 
ment ? 

But M. Belly's name stands on his side alone. No 
foreign minister or aide-de-camp is necessary to back his 
signature. The two potentates having agreed to give 
the country, he will agree to make the canal — lie, 
M. Belly, Publicists and Chevalier. It is to cost altogether, 
according to his account, 120,000,000 francs— say, four 
million eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. Oi a 



328 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



company, chairman, and directors we hear nothing. We 
cannot find that the shares are in the market. Probably 
they may be too valuable. On our own Stock Exchange 
the matter does not seem to be much known, nor do we 
perceive that it is quoted among French prices. Never- 
theless, M. Belly has the four million eight hundred 
thousand pounds already in his breeches pocket, and he 
will make the canal. I wonder whether he would drain 
London for us if we were to ask him. 

But wonderful as is the fact that these three gentlemen 
should be about to accomplish this magnificent under- 
taking for the world, the eloquence of the language in 
which the undertaking is described is perhaps more 
wonderful still. 

'On the first of May, 1858, at Rivas, in Nicaragua, 
in the midst of a concourse of circumstances full of 
grandeur, a convention was signed which opens to civi- 
lization a new view and unlimited horizons. The hour 
has come for commencing with resolution this enterprise 

of cutting the Isthmus of Panama The 

solution of the problem must be no longer retarded. It 
belongs to an epoch which has given to itself the mission 
of pulling down barriers and suppressing distances. It 
must be regarded, not as a private speculation, but as a 
creation of public interest — not as the work of this people 
or that party, but as springing from civilization itself.' 
Then M. Belly goes on to say that this project, emanating 
from a man sympathetic with the cause and a witness of 
the heroism of Central America, namely himself, possesses 
advantages — which of course could not attach to any 
scheme devised by a less godlike being. 

It may be seen that I have no great belief in the 
scheme of M. Belly; neither have I in many other 
schemes of the present day emanating from Englishmen, 
Americans, and others. But it is not that disbelief, but 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AXD TRANSIT. 



329 



my admiration for French eloquence which urges me to 
make the above translation. Alas ! I feel that I have 
lost so much of the Gallic fragrance ! The Parisian 
aroma has escaped from the poor English words ! 

Is not this peculiar eloquence used in propagating all 
French projects for increased civilization ? From the 
invention of a new constitution to that of a new shirt is 
it even wanting? We, with our stupid, unimaginative 
platitudes, know no better than to write up ' Eureka 1 
when we think we have discovered anything. But a 
Frenchman tells his countrymen that they need no 
longer be mortals ; a new era has come ; let them wear 
his slippers and they will walk as gods w r alk. How many 
new eras have there not been ? Who is not sick of the 
grandiloquence of French progress? 4 Now — now Ave 
have taken the one great step. The dove at length may 
nestle with the kite, the lamb drink with the wolf. Men 
may share their goods, certain that others will share with 
them. Labour and wages, work and its reward, shall be 
systematized. Now we have done it, and the world shall 
be happy.' Well ; perhaps the French world is happy. 
It may be that the liberty which they have propagated, 
the equality which they enjoy, and the fraternity which 
they practise, is fit for them ! 

But when has truly mighty work been heralded by 
magniloquence ? Did we have any grand words from 
old George Stephenson, with his 'vera awkward for the 
cou ' ? Was there aught of the eloquent sententiousness 
of a French marshal about the lines of Torres Vedras ? 
Was Luther apt to speak with great phraseology? If 
words ever convey to my ears a positive contradiction of 
the assertion which they affect to make, it is when they 
are grandly antithetical and magnificently verbose. If 
in addition to this, they promise to mankind 4 new epochs, 
new views, and unlimited horizons/ surely no further 



330 



CENTRAL AMEBIC A. 



proof can be needed that they are vain, empty, and 
untrue. 

But the language in which this proposal for a canal is 
couched is hardly worth so much consideration — would 
be worth no consideration at all, did it not come before 
us now as an emblem of that which at this present time 
is the most pernicious point in the French character — a 
false boasting of truth and honesty, with little or no relish 
for true truth and true honesty. 

The present question is, whether M. Belly's canal 
scheme be feasible ; and, if feasible, whether he has, or 
can attain, the means of carrying it out ? 

In the first place it has already come to pass that the 
convention signed with such unlimited horizons has proved 
to be powerless. It is an undoubted fact that it was agreed 
to by the two presidents ; and as far as one of them is con- 
cerned, it is, I fear, a fact also that for the present he has 
sufficient power in his own territory to bind his country- 
men, at any rate for a time, by his unsupported signa- 
ture. Don Juan Eafael Mora, in Costa Rica, need care 
for no congress. If he were called dictator instead of 
president the change would only be in the word. But 
this is not exactly so in Nicaragua. There, it seems, 
the congress has refused to ratify the treaty as originally 
made. But they have, I believe, ratified another, in 
which M. Belly's undertaking to make the canal is the 
same as before, but from which the enormous grant of 
land, and the stipulations as to the boundary line of the 
territories are excluded. 

In M. Belly's pamphlet he publishes a letter which 
he has received from Lord Malmesbury, as Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs — or rather a French transla- 
tion of such a letter. It is this letter which appears to 
have given in Central America the strongest guarantee 
that something is truly intended by M. Belly's project 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AND TRANSIT. 



331 



Both in the pamphlet, and in the convention itself, 
repeated reference is made to the French government ; 
but no document is given, nor even is any positive asser- 
tion made, that the government of the emperor in any 
way recognizes the scheme. But if this letter be true, 
and truly translated, Lord Malmesbury has done so to 
a certain extent. 4 And I am happy/ says the letter, 
' to be able to assure you that the stipulations of the 
treaty made between Great Britain and the United 
States, commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, are 
in my opinion applicable to your project, if you put 
it in execution.'* And then this letter, written to a 
private gentleman holding no official position, is signed 
by the Secretary of State himself. M. Belly holds no 
official position, but he is addressed in his translation of 
Lord Malmesbury's letter as ( Concessionaire du Canal 
de Nicaragua.' 

Such a letter from such a quarter has certainly been 
very useful to M. Belly. In the minds of the presidents 
of the republics of Central America it must have gone 
far to prove that England at any rate regards M. Belly 
as no adventurer. There are many of the clauses of 
the convention to which I should have imagined that 
the English Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs would 
not have given an assent, although he might not be called 
on to express dissent. In the 26th Article it is stipulated 
that during the making of the canal — which if it were 
to be made at all would be protracted over many years- 
two French ships-of-war should lie in the Lake of 
Nicaragua, it having been stipulated by Art. 24 that 
no other ships-of-war should be admitted; thus giving 
to France a military occupation of the country. And 
by Art. 28 it is agreed that any political squabble re- 

* See note to page 29, 12th edition. I have not happened to 
meet with any earlier edition of the work. 



332 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



lative to this convention should be referred to a tribunal of 
seven ; two to be named by the company, and one each 
by France, England, the United States, Nicaragua, and 
Costa Rica. It is, I imagine, hardly probable that the 
English government would send one member to such a 
tribunal, in which France would have three voices to her 
one, two of which voices would be wholly irresponsible. 

Of course the letter does not bind Lord Malmesbury 
or any secretary for foreign affairs to the different articles 
of the convention; but if it be a genuine letter, I cannot 
but think it to have been imprudent.* 

The assistance of Lord Malmesbury has been obtained 
by the easy progress of addressing a letter to him. But 
to seduce the presidents of Central America a greater 
effort has been made. They are told that they are the 
wisest of the earth's potentates. ' Carrera, of Guatemala, 
though an Indian and uneducated, is a man of natural 
genius, and has governed for fifteen years with a wisdom 
which has attracted to him the unanimous adherence of 
his colleagues.' 6 Don Juan Mora, of Costa Rica, the 
hero of Rivas, has not had to spill a drop of blood in 
maintaining in his cities an order much more perfect than 
any to be found in Europe. He is a man, " hors de 
ligne," altogether out of the common; and although he 
counts scarcely forty years, but few political examples of 
old Europe can be compared to him.' And as for General 
Martinez, President of Nicaragua, * since he has arrived 
at the direction of affairs there, he would have healed all 

* M. Belly speaks of his convention as having been adopted by- 
France, England, and the United States. 'Adopted, as it already 
is, by the United States, by England, and by France, and as it soon 
will be by the contracting Powers of the Treaty of Paris, it will 

become' the saviour of the world, &c. &c. What basis there 

is for this statement, as regards France and the United States, 1 do 
not know. As regards England, I presume Lord Malmesbury's 
letter affords that basis. 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AND TRANSIT. 



333 



tie wounds of the country— had not the fatal influence of 
North American spirit paralyzed all his efforts.' What 
wonder that Presidents so spoken of should sign away 
their lands and waters ? 

But presuming all political obstacles to be removed, 
and that as regards the possession of the land, and the 
right of making a canal through it, everything had been 
conceded, there remain two considerable difficulties. In 
the first place, the nature of the waters and land, which 
seems to prohibit the cutting of a canal, except at an ex- 
pense much more enormous than any that has been ever 
named ; and, secondly, the amount of money to be collected, 
even if M. Belly's figures be correct. He states that he 
can complete the work for four million eight hundred 
thousand pounds. From whence is that sum to be pro- 
cured ? 

As regards the first difficulty, I, from my own know- 
ledge, can say nothing, not being an engineer, and having 
seen only a small portion of the projected route. I must 
therefore refer to M. Belly's engineer, and those who hold 
views differing from M. Belly. M. Belly's engineer-in- 
chief is M. Thome de Gramond, who, in the pamphlet 
above alluded to, puts forward his calculations, and sends 
in his demand for the work at four million eight hundred 
thousand pounds. The route is by the river San Juan, 
a portion of which is so shallow that canoes in their course 
are frequently grounded when the waters are low, and 
other part of which consist of rapids. It then goes 
through the lake, a channel through which must be 
dredged or cleared with gunpowder before it can carry 
deep-sea ships, and then out to the Pacific by a canal 
which must be cut through the mountains. There is 
nothing in the mere sound of all this to make a man who 
is ignorant on the subject, as I and most men are, feel 
that the work could not be done for the sum named. 



334 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



But before investing cash in the plan, one would like to 
be sure of the engineer, and to know that he has made 
his surveys very accurately. 

Now it appears that M. Thome de Gramond has never 
set foot in Central America ; or, if he has done so now — 
and I do not know whether he has or has not — that he never 
had done so when he drew out his project. Nor, as it 
would appear, has he even done this work, trusting to 
the eyes and hands of others. As far as one can learn, 
no surveys whatsoever have been taken for this gigantic 
scheme. 

The engineer tells us that he has used marine charts 
and hydrographical drawings made by officers of various 
nations, which enable him to regard his own knowledge 
as sufficiently exact as far as shores and levels of the 
rivers, &c, are concerned ; and that with reference to 
the track of his canal, he has taken into his service — 
6 utilise ' — the works of various surveying engineers, among 
them Colonel Child, the American. They, to be sure, 
do leave him at a loss as to the interior plateau of the 
Mosquito country, and some regions to the east and south 
of the lake — the canal must enter the lake by the south- 
east ; — but this is a matter of no moment, seeing that all 
these countries are covered by virgin forests, and can 
therefore easily be arranged ! Gentlemen capitalists, will 
you on this showing take shares in the concern ? 

The best real survey executed with reference to any 
kindred project was that made by Colonel Child, an 
officer of engineers belonging to the United States. I 
believe I may say this without hesitation; and it is to 
Colonel Child's survey that M. Belly most frequently 
refers. But the facts, as stated by Colonel Child, prove 
the absolute absurdity of M. Belly's plan. He was em- 
ployed in 1851 by an American company, which, as it 
went to the considerable expense of having such work 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AXD TRANSIT. 



33.5 



absolutely done, was no doubt in earnest in its intentions 
with reference to a canal. Colonel Child did not actually 
report against the canal. He explained what could be 
done for a certain sum of money, leaving it to others to 
decide whether, in effecting so much, that sum of money 
would be well laid out. He showed that a canal seventeen 
feet deep might be made — taking the course of the San 
Juan and that of the lake, as suggested by M. Belly — for a 
sum of thirty-one millions of dollars, or six million two 
hundred thousand pounds. 

But when the matter came to be considered by men 
versed in such concerns, it was seen that a canal with a 
depth of only seventeen feet of water would not admit of 
such vessels as those by which alone such a canal could 
be beneficially used. Passengers, treasure, and light goods 
can easily be transhipped and carried across by railway. 
The canal, if made at all, must be made for the passage 
of large vessels built for heavy goods. For such vessels a 
canal must hold not less than twenty-five feet of water. 
It was -calculated that a cutting of such depth would cost 
much more than double the sum needed for that intended 
to contain seventeen feet — more, that is, than twelve 
million four hundred thousand pounds. The matter was 
then abandoned, on the conviction that no ship canal made 
at such a cost could by any probability become remunera- 
tive. In point of time it could never compete with the 
railway. Colonel Child had calculated that a delay of 
two days would take place in the locks ; and even as re- 
gards heavy goods, no extreme freight could be levied, 
as saving of expense with them would be of much greater 
object than saving of time. 

That this decision was reached on good grounds, and 
that the project, then, at any rate, was made bona fide 
there can, I believe, be no doubt. In opposition to such 
a decision, made on such grounds, and with no encourage- 



336 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



ment but that given by the calculations of an engineer who 
has himself made no surveys, I cannot think it likely that 
this new plan will ever be carried out. The eloquence 
even of M. Belly, backed by such arguments, will hardly 
collect four million eight hundred thousand pounds ; and 
even if it did, the prudence of M. Belly would hardly 
throw such an amount of treasure into the San Juan 
river. 

As I have before said ; there appears to have been no 
company formed. M. Belly is the director, and he has 
a bureau of direction in the Rue de Provence. But 
though deficient as regards chairmen, directors, and share- 
holders, he is magnificently provided with high-sounding 
officials. Then again there comes a blank. Though the 
corps of officers was complete when I was in Costa Eica, 
at any rate as regards their names, the workmen had not 
arrived ; not even the skilled labourers who were to come 
in detachments of forty-five by each mail packet. The 
mail packets came but not the skilled labourers. 

Shortly before my arrival at San Jose there appeared 
in the journal published in that town a list of officers to 
be employed by M. Felix Belly, the Director-General 
6 De la Companie Del Canal Atlantico-Pacifico.' The 
first of these is Don Andres Le Vasseur, Minister Pleni- 
potentiary, Veteran Officer of the Guard Imperial, Com- 
mander of the Legion of Honour, and Knight of the Order 
of St. Gregory. He is Secretary-General of the Direction. 
Then there are other secretaries. In the first place, 
Prince Polignac, Veteran Officer of the Cavalry of the 
Cazadores in Africa, &c. He at any rate is a fact ! for did 
I not meet him and the O' Gorman Mahon— Nicodemus 
and Polyphemus — not ' standing naked in the open air,' 
but drinking brandy and water at the little inn at Esparza ? 
6 Arcades ambo !' The next secretary is Don Henrique 
Le Vasseur. He is Dibujador fotografo, which I iake to 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AND TRANSIT. 



mean photographical artist ; and then Don Andres L'B 
tier ; he is the private secretary. 

We next come to the engineers. With reference to 
geology and mineralogy, M. Belly has employed D< □ 
Jose Durocher, whose titles, taken from the faculty of 
science at Eennes, the Legion of Honour, &c, are too long 
to quote. Don Eugenio Ponsard, who also is not without 
his titles, is the working engineer on these subjects. And 
then joined to them as adjutant-engineer is Don Henrique 
Peudifer, whose name is also honoured with various 
adjuncts. 

The engineers who are to be intrusted with the surveys 
and works of the canals are named next. There are four 
such, to whom are joined five conductors of the works and 
eight special masters of the men. 

All these composed an expedition which left South- 
ampton on the 17th of February, 1859, — or which should 
so have left it, had they acted up to M. Belly's promises. 

Then by the packet of the 2nd of March, 1859, there 
came — or at least there should have come, for we are told 
that they sailed — another expedition. I cannot afford to 
give ail the names, but they are full-sounding and very 
honourable. Among them there was a maker of bricks, 
who in his own country had been a chief of the works in 
the imperial manufactory of porcelain at Sevres. Having 
enticed him from so high a position, it is to be hoped that 
M. Belly will treat him well in Central America. There 
are, or were, hydrographical engineers and agricultural 
engineers, master carpenters, and masters of various other 
specialties. 

I fear all these gentlemen came to grief on the road, 
for I think I may say that no such learned troops came 
through with the mail packets which left Southampton on 
the days indicated. 

Then by the following steamers there would, it is stated, 

z 

I \ ■ 



338 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



be despatched in succession an inspector of telegraphs, an 
engineer for making gas, an engineer to be charged with 
the fabrication of the iron way, an agriculturist-in-chief, a 
scientific commission for geology, mineralogy, meteorology, 
and natural history in general. And attached to all the 
engineers will come — or now long since should have come 
— the conductors of works and special masters of men, who 
are joined with them in their operations. These are to 
consist principally of veteran soldiers of the Engineers and 
the Artillery. 

These gentlemen also must, I fear, have been cast away 
between Southampton and St. Thomas, if they left the 
former port by either of the two mail steamers following 
those two specially indicated. I think I may say positively 
that no such parties were forwarded from St. Thomas. 

The general inspection of the works will be intrusted 
ultimately to a French and to an English engineer. The 
Frenchman will of course be M. Thome de Gamond. 
The Englishman to be 'Mr. Locke, Member of Parlia- 
ment.' If, indeed, this latter assertion were true ! But I 
think I may take upon myself to say that it is untrue. 

All the above certainly sounds very grand, especially 
when given at full length in the Spanish language. Out 
there, in Central America, the list is effective. Here, in 
England, we should like to see the list of the directors as 
well, and to have some idea how much money has been 
subscribed. Mankind perhaps can trust M. Belly for much, 
but not for everything. 

In the month of May, Don Juan Eafael Mora, the 
President of Costa Pica, left his dominions and pro- 
ceeded to Rivas, in Nicaragua, to assist at the inaugura- 
tion of the opening of the works of the canal. When I 
and my companion met him at Esparza, accompanied 
by Nicodemus and Polyphemus, he was making this 
journey. M. Belly has already described in eloquent 



RAILWAYS, CANALS, AND TKANSIT. 



330 



language how on a previous occasion this potentate con- 
descended to leave his own kingdom and visit that of 
a neighbour ; thus sacrificing individual rank for the 
benefit of humanity and civilization. He was willing to 
do this even once again. Having borrowed a French man- 
of-war to carry him from Punta-arenas, in his own terri- 
tories, to St. Juan del Sur, in the territory of Nicaragua, 
he started with his suite, of whom the Prince and the 
O'Grorman were such distinguished members. But, lo ! 
when he arrived at Eivas, a few miles up from San Juan 
del Sur — at Eivas, where with gala holiday triumph the 
canal was to be inaugurated — the canal from whence 
were to come new views and unlimited horizons — lo ! 
when he there arrived, no brother-president was there to 
meet him, no M. Belly, attended by engineers-in-chief 
and brickmakers from Sevres, to do him honour. There 
was not even one French pupil from the Polytechnic 
School to turn a sod with a silver spade. In lieu of this 
some custom-house officer of Nicaragua called upon poor 
Don Juan to pay the usual duty on bringing his port- 
manteau into Eivas. Other new views and other un- 
limited horizons had, it seems, been drawing on M. Belly. 

One of the first words of which a man has to learn 
the meaning on reaching these countries is 'transit.' 
Central America can only be great in the world— as 
Egypt can be only great— by being a passage between 
other parts of the world which are in themselves great. 
We Englishmen all know Crewe; Crewe has become a 
town of considerable importance, as being a great rail- 
way junction. Men must reach Crewe and leave Crewe 
continually, and the concourse there has rendered labour 
necessary ; labourers of all sorts must live in houses, and 
require bakers and grocers to supply them. So Crewe 
has grown up and become important ; and so will Central 
America become important, Aspinwall— Colon as we 



340 CENTRAL AMEBIC A. 

call it — has become a town in this way within the last 
ten years. 

' Transit,' in these parts means the trade of carrying 
people across Central America; and a deal of 1 transit' 
has been done and money made by carrying people across 
Nicaragua by way of the great lake. This has hitherto 
been effected by shallow-bottomed boats. I will say one 
word or so on the subject when I have done, as I very 
soon shall have done, with M. Belly. 

Xow it is very generally thought that M. Belly, when 
he speaks of this canal, means 6 transit.' There can be 
no question but that a great carrying trade might be 
opened, much to the advantage of Nicaragua, and to 
the advantage of Costa Rica also though not to the same 
extent. If all this canal grandiloquence would pave the 
way to 6 transit,' might it not be well ? What if another 
agreement could be made, giving to M. Belly and his 
company the sole right of ' transit ' through Nicaragua, 
till the grand canal should be completed? a very long 
lease — might not something be done in this way? But 
Don Juan Mora there, Don Juan of Costa Bica, that man 
altogether ' hors de ligne,' grand as he is, need know 
no thing about this. Let him, left quite in darkness as 
to this new view, these altered unlimited horizons, go to 
Bivas if he will, and pay his custom dues. 

It may be that I have written at too great length, and 
with an energy disproportionate to the subject, on this 
matter of the Nicaraguan canal scheme. I do not know 
that the English public generally, or at any rate that 
portion of it which may perhaps read my book, is very 
deeply interested in the subject. We hear now and then 
something of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and a word or 
two is said about the Panama route to Australia, but the 
subject is not generally interesting to us, as is that of the 
passage through Egypt. We can reach Australia by 



BAIL WAYS, CAXALS, AXD TRANSIT. 



341 



another and a shorter route; and as for Vancouver's 
Island and Frazer River, they as yet are very young. 

But the matter will become of importance. And to 
a man in Central America, let his visit to that country 
be ever so short, it becomes at once important. To me 
it was grievous to End a work so necessary to the world 
as this of opening a way over the isthmus, tampered 
with, and to a degree hindered by a scheme which I 
cannot but regard as unreal. But unreal as it may be, 
this project has reached dimensions which make it in 
some way worthy of notice. A French ship-of-war was 
sent to take the President Mora and his suite on their 
unfortunate journey to Bivas ; and an English-ship-of 
war was sent to bring them back. The extension of 
such courtesies to the president of a republic in Central 
America may be very well; but men, seeing on what 
business this president was travelling, not unnaturally 
regarded the courtesy as an acknowledgment of the 
importance of M. Belly's work. 

I do not wish to use hard names, but I cannot think 
that the project of which I have been speaking covers 
any true intention of making a canal. And such schemes, 
if not real, if not true in the outward bearings which 
they show to the world, go far to hinder others which 
might be real. And now I will say nothing further 
about M. Belly. 

As I have before stated, there was some few years 
since a considerable passenger traffic through Central 
America by the route of the Lake of Nicaragua. This 
of course was in the hands of the Americans, and the 
passengers were chiefly those going and coming between 
the Eastern States and California. They came d wn I 
Greytown, at the mouth of the San Juan river, in 
steamers, from New York, and I believe from various 
American ports, went up the San Juan river in other 



342 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



steamers with flat bottoms prepared for those waters, 
across the lake in the same way, and then by a good road 
over the intervening neck of land between the lake and 
the Pacific. 

Of course the Panama railway has done much to 
interfere with this. In the first place, a rival route has 
thus been opened ; though I doubt whether it would be 
a quicker route from New York to California if the 
way by the Lake were well organized. And then the 
company possessing the line of steamers running to 
Aspinwall from X ew York has been able to buy off the 
line which would otherwise run to Greytown. 

But this rivalship has not been the main cause of the 
total stoppage of the Nicaraguan route. The filibusters 
came into that land and destroyed everything. They 
dropped down from California on Eealejo, Leon, Mana- 
qua, Granada, and all the western coast of Nicaragua. 
Then others came from the South-Eastern States, from 
Mobile and New Orleans, and swarmed up the San 
Juan river, devouring everything before them. There 
can be no doubt that Walker's idea, in his attempt to 
possess himself of this country, was that he could thus 
become master of the passage across the isthmus. He 
saw, as so many others have seen, the importance of the 
locality in this point of view ; and he probably felt that 
if he could anake himself lord of the soil by his own 
exertions, and on his own bottom, his mother country, 
the United States, would not be slow to recognize him. 
' I,' he would have said, c have procured for you the 
ownership of the road which is so desirable for you. 
Pay me, by making me your lieutenant here, and pro- 
tecting me in that position.' 

The idea was not badly planned, but it was of course 
radically unjust. It was a contemplated filching of the 
road. And Walker found, as all men do find, that he 



EAILWAYS, CANALS, AND TRANSIT. 343 



could not easily get good tools to do bad work. ] ! 
tried the job with, a very rough lot of tools; and now, 
though he has done much harm to others, he has done 
very little good to himself. I do not think that we 
shall hear much more of him. 

And among the worst of the injuries which he has 
done is this disturbance of the Lake traffic. This route 
has been altogether abandoned. There, in the San Juan 
river, is to be seen one old steamer with its bottom up- 
wards, a relic of the filibusters and their destruction. 
All along the banks tales are told of their injustice and 
sufferings. How recklessly they robbed on their journey 
up the country, and how they returned back to Grey- 
town — those who did return, whose bones are not 
whitening the Lake shores — wounded, maimed, and 
miserable. 

Along the route traders were beginning to establish 
themselves, men prepared to provide the travellers with 
food and drink, and the boats with fuel for their steam. 
An end for the present has been put to all this. The 
weak governments of the country have been able to afford 
no protection to these men, and placed as they were, 
beyond the protection of England or the United States, 
they have been completely open to attack. The filibusters 
for a while have destroyed the transit through Nicaragua ; 
and it is hardly matter of. surprise that the presidents ol 
that and the neighbouring republics should catch at any 
scheme which proposes to give them back this advantage, 
especially when promise is made of the additional advan- 
tage of effectual protection. 

It is much to be desired, on all accounts, that this 
route should be again opened. Here, I think, is to be 
found the best chance of establishing an immediate 
competition with the Panama railway. For although 
such a route will not offer the comfort of the Panama 



314 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 



line, or, till it be well organized, the same rapidity, it 
would nevertheless draw to it a great portion of the 
traffic, and men and women going in numbers would be 
carried at cheaper rates; and these cheaper rates in 
Nicaragua would probably at once lessen the fares now 
charged by the Panama railway. Competition would 
certainly be advantageous, and for the present 1 see 
no other opening for a competitive route. 

A railway along the banks of the San Juan would, I 
fear, be too expensive. The distance is above one 
hundred and fifty miles, and the line would be very 
costly. But a line of rails from the Lake to the Pacific 
might be made comparatively at a small outlay, and 
would greatly add to the comfort and rapidity of the 
passage. 

To us Englishmen it is a matter of indifference in 
whose hands the transit may be, so long as it is free, 
and open to all the world; so loDg as a difference of 
nationality creates no difference in the fares charged or 
in the facilities afforded. For our own purposes, I have 
no doubt the Panama line is the best, and will be the 
route we shall use. But we should be delighted to see 
a second line opened. If Mr. Squier can accomplish 
his line through Honduras, we will give him great 
honour, and acknowledge that he has done the world a 
service. In the mean time, we shall be very happy to 
see the Lake transit re-established. 



( M6 ) 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE BERMUDAS. 

In May I returned from Greytown and the waters of 
the San Juan to St. Thomas, spending a few days at 
Aspinwall and Panama on my journey, as I have before 
explained ; and on this occasion, that of my fourth visit 
to St. Thomas, I was happy enough to escape without 
any long stay there. My course now lay to the Ber- 
mudas, to which islands a steamer runs once a month 
from that disagreeable little depot of steam navigation. 
But as this boat is fitted to certain arrivals and despatches, 
not at St. Thomas, but at Halifax, and as we reached 
St. Thomas late on the night of the day on which she 
should have sailed, and as my missing that vessel would 
have entailed on me another month's sojourn, and that a 
summer month, among those islands, it may be imagined 
that I was rather lively on entering the harbour ; — keenly 
lively to ascertain whether the ' Delta,' such is the name 
of the Bermuda boat, was or was not gone on her mission. 

6 1 see her red funnel right across the harbour,' said the 
chief officer, looking through infinite darkness. I dis- 
believed him and accused him of hoaxing me. 1 Look 
yourself,' said he, handing me his glass. But all the 
glasses in the world won't turn darkness into light. I 
know not by what educational process the eyes of sailors 
become like those of cats. In this instance the chief 



346 



THE BERMUDAS. 



officer had seen aright, and then, after a visit to the 
4 Delta,' made at 2 A.M., I went to bed a happy man. 

We started the next day at 2 P.M., or rather I should 
say the same day, and I did no more than breakfast on 
shore. I then left that favoured island, I trust for the 
last time, — an island which I believe may be called the 
white man's grave with quite as much truth as any place 
on the coast of Africa. We steamed out, and I stood on 
the stern taking a last look at the three hills of the pano- 
rama. It is certainly a very pretty place seen from a 
moderate and safe distance, and seen as a picture. But it 
should be seen in that way and in no other. 

We started, and I at any rate, with joy. But my joy 
was not of long duration, for the 6 Delta ' rolled hideously. 
Screw boats — propellers as the Americans call them with 
their wonted genteel propriety — always do roll, and have 
been invented with the view of making sea-passages more 
disagreeable than they were. Did any one of my readers ever 
have a berth allotted to him just over the screw ? If so, 
he knows exactly the feeling of being brayed in a mortar. 

In four days we reached Bermuda, and made our 
way into St. George's harbour. Looking back at my 
fortnight's sojourn there, it seems to me that there can be 
no place in the world as to which there can be less to be said 
than there is about this island, — sayings at least of the sort 
in which it is my nature to express itself. Its geological 
formation is, I have no doubt, mysterious. It seems to be 
made of white soft stone, composed mostly of little shells ; 
so soft, indeed, that you might cut Bermuda up with a 
handsaw. And people are cutting Bermuda up with hand- 
saws. One little island, that on which the convicts are 
established, has been altogether so cut up already. When 
I visited it, two fat convicts were working away slowly at 
the last fragment. 

But I am no geologist, and can give no opinion favour- 



THE BERMUDAS. 



347 



able or otherwise as to that doctrine that these islands are 
the crater of an extinct volcano ; only, if so, the seas in 
those days must have held a distance much more respect- 
ful than at present. Every one of course knows that there 
are three hundred and sixty-five of these islands, all lying 
within twenty miles in Jength and three in breadth. 
They are surrounded too by reefs, or rocks hidden by 
water, which stretch out into the sea in some places for 
eight or ten miles, making the navigation very difficult ; 
and, as it seemed to me, very perilous. 

Kor am I prepared to say whether or no the Bermudas 
was the scene of Ariel's tricksy doings. They were first 
discovered in 1522, by Bermudez, a Spaniard; and 
Shakespere may have heard of them some indistinct 
surmises, sufficient to enable him to speak of the ' still 
vexed Bermoothes.' If these be the veritable scenes of 
Prospero's incantations, I will at any rate say this — that 
there are now to be found stronger traces of the breed of 
Caliban than that of Ariel. Strong, however, of neither ; 
for though Caliban did not relish working for his master 
more keenly than a Bermudian of the present day, there 
was nevertheless about Mm a sort of energy which is alto- 
gether wanting in the existing islanders. 

A gentleman has lately written a book— I am told a 
very good book — called c Bermuda as a Colony, a Fort- 
ress, and a Prison.' This book, I am sure, gives accurately 
all the information which research could collect as to 
these islands under the headings named. I made no 
research, and pretend only to state the results of cursory 
observation. 

As a fortress, no doubt it is very strong. I have no 
doubt on the matter, seeing that I am a patriotic English- 
man, and as such believe all English fortifications to be 
strong. It is, however, a matter on which the opinion of 
no civilian can be of weight, unless he have deeply studied 



348 



THE BERMUDAS. 



the subject, in which case he so far ceases to be a civilian. 
Everything looked very clean and apple-pie ; a great many 
flags were flying on Sundays and the Queens birthday ; 
and all seemed to be ship-shape. Of the importance to us 
of the position there can be no question. If it should ever 
come to pass that we should be driven to use an armed 
fleet in the Western waters, Bermuda will be as serviceable 
to us there as Malta is in the Mediterranean. So much 
for the fortress. 

As to the prison, I will say a word or two just now, seeing 
that it is in that light that the place was chiefly interesting 
to me. But first for the colony. 

Snow is not prevalent in Bermuda, at least not in the 
months of May and June ; but the first look of the houses 
in each of its two small towns, and indeed all over the 
island, gives one the idea of a snow storm. Every house 
is white, up from the ground to the very point of the roof. 
Nothing is in so great demand as whitewash. They 
whitewash their houses incessantly, and always include 
the roofs. This becomes a nuisance, from the glare it 
occasions ; and is at last painful to the eyes. They say 
there that it is cleanly and cheap, and no one can deny 
that cleanliness and economy are important domestic 
virtues. 

There are two towns, situated on different islands, called 
St. George and Hamilton. The former is the head- 
quarters of the military ; the latter of the governor. In 
speaking of the place as a fortress, I should have said that 
it is the summer head-quarters of the admiral in command 
of the Halifax station. The dockyard, which is con- 
nected with the convict establishment, is at an island called 
Ireland ; but the residence of the admiral is not far 
from Hamilton, on that which the Bermudians call the 
6 Continent.' 

I spent a week in each of these towns, and I can hardly 



THE BERMUDAS. 



849 



say which I found the most triste. The island, or islands, 
as one must always say — using the plural number — have 
many gifts of nature to recommend them. They are 
extremely fertile. The land, with a very moderate amount 
of cultivation, will give two crops of ordinary potatoes, 
and one crop of sweet potatoes in the year. Most fruits 
will grow here, both those of the tropics and of the more 
northern latitudes. Oranges and lemons, peaches and 
strawberries, bananas and mulberries thrive, — or would 
thrive equally well, if they were even slightly encouraged 
to do so. 

Xo climate in the world probably is better adapted for 
beetroot, potatoes, onions, and tomatoes. The place is so 
circumstanced geographically that it should be the early 
market-garden for ISew York — as to a certain small extent 
it is. isew York cannot get her early potatoes — potatoes 
in May and June — from her own soil ; but Bermuda can 
give them to her in any quantity. 

Arrowroot also grows here to perfection. The Ber- 
mudians claim to say that their arrowroot is the best in the 
world ; and I believe that none bears a higher price. Then 
the land produces barley, oats, and Indian corn ; and not 
only produces them, but produces two, sometimes three 
crops a year. Let the English farmer with his fallow field 
think of that. 

But with all their advantages Bermuda is very poor. 
Perhaps, I should add, that on the whole, she is contented 
with her poverty. And if so, why disturb such content- 
ment ? 

But, nevertheless, one cannot teach oneself not to be 
desirous of progress. One cannot but feel it sad to see 
people neglecting the good things which are under their 
feet. Lemons and oranges there are now none in Ber- 
muda. The trees suffered a blight some year or two 
since, and no effort has been made to restore them, i 



350 



THE BERMUDAS. 



saw no fruit of any description, though I am told I was 
there in the proper season, and heard much of the fruit 
that there used to be in former days. I saw no vege- 
tables but potatoes and onions, and was told that as a 
rule the people are satisfied with them. I did not once 
encounter a piece of meat fit to be eaten, excepting when 
I dined on rations supplied by the Convict establish- 
ment. The poultry was somewhat better than the meat, 
but yet of a very poor description. Both bread and 
butter are bad ; the latter quite uneatable. English 
people whom I met declared that they were unable to 
get anything to eat. The people, both white and black, 
seemed to be only half awake. The land is only half 
cultivated ; and hardly half is tilled of that which might 
be tilled. 

The reason of this neglect, for I maintain that it is 
neglect, should however be explained. Nearly all the 
islands are covered with small stunted bushy cedar-trees. 
Not cedars such as those of Lebanon, not the cedar-trees of 
Central America, nor those to which we are accustomed in 
our gardens at home. In Bermuda they are, as I have 
said, low bushy trees, much resembling stunted firs. But 
the wood, when it can be found large enough, is, they say, 
good for ship-building ; and as ship-building has for years 
been a trade in these islands, the old owners of the property 
do not like to clear their land. 

This was all very well as long as the land had no special 
virtue — as long as a market, such as that afforded by New 
York, was wanting. But now that the market has been 
opened, there can be no doubt — indeed, nobody does doubt 
— that if the land were cleared, its money value would be 
greatly more than it now is. Every one to whom I spoke 
admitted this, and complained of the backwardness of the 
island in improvements. But no one tries to remedy 
this now. 



THE BERMUDAS. 



351 



They had a Governor there some years ago who did 
much to cure this state of things, who did show them that 
money was to be made by producing potatoes and sending 
them out of the island. This was Sir TV. Beid, the man 
of storms. He seems to have had some tolerably efficient 
idea of what a Governor's duty should be in such a place 
as Bermuda. To be helped first at every table, and to be 
called 1 Your Excellency/ and then to receive some 
thousands a year for undergoing these duties is all very 
well ; is very nice for a military gentleman in the decline 
of years. It is very well that England can so provide for a 
few of her old military gentlemen. But when the military 
gentlemen selected can do something else besides, it does 
make such a difference ! Sir TV. Beid did do much else ; 
and if there could be found another Sir TV. Beid or two to 
take their turns in Bermuda for six years each, the scrubby 
bushes would give way, and the earth would bring forth 
her increase. 

The sleepiness of the people appeared to me the most 
prevailing characteristic of the place. There seemed to 
be no energy among the natives, no idea of going a-head, 
none of that principle of constant motion which is found 
so strongly developed among their great neighbours in the 
United States. To say that they live for eating and 
drinking would be to wrong them. They want the energy 
for the gratification of such vicious tastes. To live and die 
woidd seem to be enough for them. To live and die as 
their fathers and mothers did before them, in the same 
houses, using the same furniture, nurtured on the same food, 
and enjoying the same immunity from the dangers of 
excitement. 

I must confess that during the short period of my 
sojourn there, I myself was completely overtaken by the 
same sort of lassitude. I could not walk a mile without 
fatigue. I was always anxious to be supine, lying down 



S52 



THE BERMUDAS. 



whenever I could find a sofa ; ever anxious for a rocking- 
chair, and solicitous for a quick arrival of the hour of bed, 
which used to be about half-past nine o'clock. Indeed 
this feeling became so strong with me that I feared I 
was ill, and began to speculate as to the effects and 
pleasures of a low fever and a Bermuda doctor. I was 
comforted, however, by an assurance that everybody 
was suffering in the same way. 6 When the south wind 
blows it is always so.' — c The south wind must be very 
prevalent then,' I suggested. I was told that it was very 
prevalent. During the period of my visit it was all south 
wind. 

The weather was not hot — not hot at least to me who 
had just come up from Panama, and the fiery furnace of 
Aspinwall. But the air was damp and muggy and 
disagreeable. To me it w T as the most trying climate 
that I had encountered. They have had yellow fever 
there twice within the last eight years, and on both 
occasions it was very fatal. Singularly enough on its 
latter coming the natives suffered much more than 
strangers. This is altogether opposed to the usual habits 
of the yellow fever, which is imagined to be ever 
cautious in sparing those who are indigenous to the land 
it visits. 

The working population are almost all negroes. I 
should say that this is quite as much a rule here as in 
any of the West Indies. Of course there are coloured 
people — men and women of mixed breed ; but they are 
not numerous as in Jamaica ; or, if so, they are so nearly 
akin to the negro as not to be observed. There are, I think, 
none of those all but white ladies and gentlemen whose 
position in life is so distressing. 

The negroes are well off ; as a rule they can earn 
2s. 6d. a day, from that to 3s. For exceptional jobs, 
men cannot be had under a dollar, or 4s. 2d, On these 



THE BERMUDAS. 



853 



wages they can live well by working three days a week, 
and such appears to be their habit. It seems to me 
that no enfranchised negro entertains an idea of daily 
work. Work to them is an exceptional circumstance, 
as to us may be a spell of fifteen or sixteen hours in the 
same day. We do such a thing occasionally for certain 
objects, and for certain objects they are willing to work 
occasionally. 

The population is about eleven thousand. That of 
the negroes and coloured people does not much exceed 
that of the whites. That of the females greatly exceeds 
that of the males, both among the white and coloured 
people. Among the negroes I noticed this, that if not 
more active than their brethren in the West Indies, they 
are at least more civil and less sullen in their manner. 
But then again, they are without the singular mixture of 
fun and vanity which makes the Jamaica negro so amusing 
for a while. 

These islands are certainly very pretty ; or I should per- 
haps say that the sea, which forms itself into bays and creeks 
by running in among them, is very pretty. The water 
is clear and transparent, there being little or no sand on 
those sides on which the ocean makes its entrance ; and 
clear water is hi itself so beautiful. Then the singular 
way in which the land is broken up into narrow necks, 
islands, and promontories, running here and there in a 
capricious, half-mysterious manner, creating a desire for 
amphibiosity, necessarily creates beauty. But it is mostly 
the beauty of the sea, and not of the land. The islands 
are flat, or at any rate there is no considerable elevation 
in them. They are covered throughout with those scrubby 
little trees ; and, although the trees are green, and there- 
fore when seen from the sea give a freshness to the land- 
scape, they are uninteresting and monotonous on shore. 

I must not forget the oleanders, which at the time of 

2 A 



354 



THE BERMUDAS. 



my visit were in full flower ; — which, for aught I know, 
may be in full flower during the whole year. They are 
so general through all the islands, and the trees them- 
selves are so covered with the large, straggling, but bright 
blossoms, as to give quite a character to the scenery. The 
Bermudas might also be called the oleander isles. 

The government consists of a Governor, Council, and 
House of Assembly ; — King, Lords, and Commons again. 
Twenty years ago I should thoroughly have approved 
of this ; but now I am hardly sure whether a population 
of ten or twelve thousand individuals, of whom much 
more than half are women, and more than half the refnainder 
are negroes, require so composite a constitution. Would 
not a strict Governor, with due reference to Downing 
Street, do almost as well ? But then to make the change ; 
— that would be difficulty. 

'We have them pretty well in hand,' a gentleman 
whispered to me who was in some shape connected with 
the governing powers. He was alluding, I imagine, to 
the House of Assembly. Well, that is a comfort. A 
good majority in the Lower House is a comfort to all men 
— except the minority. 

There are nine parishes, each returning four members 
to this House of Assembly. But though every parish 
requires four members, I observe that half a clergyman 
is enough for most of them. But then the clergymen 
must be paid. The council here consists chiefly of gentle- 
men holding government offices, or who are in some way 
connected with the government ; so that the Crown can 
probably contrive to manage its little affairs. If I re- 
member rightly Gibraltar and Malta have no Lords or 
Commons. They are fortresses, and as such under military 
rule; and so is Bermuda a fortress. Independently of 
her purely military importance, her size and population is by 
no means equal to that of Malta. The population of 



THE BERMUDAS. 



Malta is chiefly native, and foreign to us; and the 

population of Bermuda is chiefly black. 

But then Malta is a conquered colony, whereas Ber- 
muda was < settled ' by Britons, as the word goes. That 
makes all the difference. That such a little spot as Ber- 
muda would in real fact be better without a constitution 
of its own, if the change could only be managed, that I 
imagine will be the opinion of most men who have thought 
about the matter. 

And now for the convict establishment, I received 
great kindness and hospitality from the controller of it ; 
but this, luckily, does not prevent my speaking freely 
on the matter. He had only just then newly arrived 
from England, had but now assumed his new duties, and 
was therefore neither responsible for anything that was 
amiss, or entitled to credit for what had been permanently 
established there on a good footing. My own impression 
is that of the latter there was very little. 

In these days our penal establishments and gaol arrange- 
ments generally, are, certainly, matters of very vital im- 
portance to us. In olden times, and I include the last 
century and some part of this among olden times, we 
certainly did not manage these matters well. Our main 
object then was to get rid of our ruffians ; — to punish them 
also, certainly ; but, as a chief matter, to get rid of them. 
The idea of making use of them, present or future use, 
had hardly occurred to us ; nor had we begun to reflect 
whether the roguery of coming years might not be some- 
what lessened by curing the rogues — by making them not 
rogues. Isow-a-days we are reflecting a good deal on 
this question. 

Our position lately has been all altered. Circumstances 
have done much to alter it ; we can no longer get rid of 
the worst class of criminals by sending them to Botany 
Bay. Botany Bay has assumed a will of its own, and 



356 



THE BEKMUDAS. 



will not have them at any price. But philanthropy has done 
more even than circumstances, very much more. We have 
the will, the determination as well as the wish, to do well 
by our rogues, even if we have not as yet found the way ; 
and this is much. In this, as in everything else, the way 
will follow the will, sooner or later. 

But in the mean time we have been trying various experi- 
ments, with more or less success ; forgiving men half their 
terms of punishment on good behaviour ; giving them 
tickets of leave ; crank-turning ; solitary confinement ; 
pietising — what may be called a system of gaol sanctity, 
perhaps the worst of all schemes, as being a direct 
advertisement for hypocrisy; work without result, the 
most distressing punishment going, one may say, next to 
that of no work at all; enforced idleness, which is horrible 
for human nature to contemplate ; work with result, work 
which shall pay ; good living, pound of beef, pound of 
bread, pound of potatoes, ounce of tea, glass of grog, pipe 
of tobacco, resulting in much fat, excellent if our prisoners 
were stalled oxen to be eaten; poor living, bread and 
water, which has its recommendations also, though it be 
so much opposed to the material humanity of the age; 
going to school, so that life if possible may be made 
to recommence ; very good also, if life would recommence ; 
corporal punishment, flogging of the body, horrible to 
think of, impossible to be looked at ; spirit punishment, 
flogging of the soul, best of all if one could get at the soul 
so as to do it effectually* 

All these schemes are being tried; and as I believe 
that they are tried with an honest intent to arrive at that 
which is best, so also do I believe that we shall in 
time achieve that which is, if not heavenly best, at 
any rate terrestrially good ; — shall at least get rid cer- 
tainly of all that is hellishly bad. At present, however, 
we are still groping somewhat uncertainly. Let us 



THE BERMUDAS. 



try for a moment to see what the Bermuda groping has 
done. 

I do not in the least doubt that the intention here also 
has been good : the intention, that is, of those who have 
been responsible for the management of the establishment. 
But I do not think that the results have been happy. 

At Bermuda there are in round numbers fifteen hun- 
dred convicts. As this establishment is one of penal 
servitude, of course it is to be presumed that those sent 
there are either hardened thieves, whose lives have been 
used to crime, or those who have committed heavy offences 
under the impulse of strong temptation. In dealing with 
such men I think we have three things to do. Firstly, to 
rid ourselves of them from amongst us, as we do of other 
nuisances. This we should do were we to hang them ; 
this we did do when we sent them to Botany Bay ; this 
we certainly do when we send them to Bermuda. But 
this, I would say, is the lightest of the three duties. The 
second is with reference to the men themselves ; to divest 
them, if by any means it may be possible, of their roguery ; 
to divest them even of a little of their roguery, if so much 
as that can be done ; to teach them that trite lesson of 
honesty being the best policy, — so hard for men to learn 
when honesty has been, as it were, for many years past out 
of their sight, and even beyond their understanding. 
This is very important, but even this is not the most im- 
portant. The third and most important object is the 
punishment of these men ; their punishment, sharp, hard 
to bear, heavy to body and mind, disagreeable in all ways, 
to be avoided on account of its odiousness by all prudent 
men ; their condign punishment, so that the world at largo 
may know and see, and clearly acknowledge, — even the 
uneducated world, — that honesty is the best policy. 

That the first object is achieved, I have said. It is 
achieved as regards those fifteen hundred, and, as far 



858 



THE BERMUDAS. 



as I know, at a moderate cost. Useful work for such men 
is to be found at Bermuda. We have dockyards there, 
and fortifications which cannot be made too strong and 
weather-tight. At such a place works may be done by 
convict labour which could not be done otherwise. Whether 
the labour be economically used is another question ; but 
at any rate the fifteen hundred rogues are disposed of, well 
out of the way of our pockets and shop windows. 

As to the second object, that of divesting these rogues 
of their roguery, the best way of doing that is the question 
as to which there is at the present moment so much doubt. 
As to what may be the best way I do not presume to give 
an opinion ; but I do presume to doubt whether the best 
way has as yet been found at Bermuda. The proofs at 
any rate were not there. Shortly before my arrival a 
prisoner had been killed in a row. After that an at- 
tempt had been made to murder a warder. And during 
my stay there one prisoner was deliberately murdered by 
two others after a faction fight between a lot of Irish and 
English, in which the warders were for some minutes 
quite unable to interfere. Twenty-four men were carried 
to the hospital dangerously wounded, as to the life of some 
of whom the doctor almost despaired. This occurred on a 
day intervening between two visits which I made to the 
establishment. Within a month of the same time three 
men had escaped, of whom two only were retaken ; one 
had got clear away, probably to America. This tells little 
for the discipline, and very little for the moral training of 
the men. 

There is no wall round the prison. I must explain 
that the convicts are kept on two islands, those called 
Boaz and Ireland. At Boaz is the parent establish- 
ment, at which live the controller, chaplains, doctors, 
and head officers. But here is the lesser number of 
prisoners, about six hundred. They live in ordinary 



THE BERMUDAS. 



prisons. The other nine hundred are kept in two hulks, 
old men-of-war moored by the breakwaters, at the dock- 
yard establishment in Ireland. It was in one of these 
that the murder was committed. The labour of these 
nine hundred men is devoted to the dockyard works. 
There is a bridge between the two islands over which 
runs a public road, and from this road there are wayg 
equally public, as far as the eye goes, to all parts of the 
prison. A man has only to say that he is going to the 
chaplain's house, and he may pass all through the prison, 
— with spirits in his pocket if it so please him. That the 
prisoners should not be about without warders is no doubt 
a prison rule ; but where everything is done by the 
prisoners, from the building of stores to the picking of 
weeds and lighting of lamps, how can any moderate 
number of warders see everything, even if they were in- 
clined? There is nothing to prevent spirits being 
smuggled in after dark through the prison windows. 
And the men do get rum, and drunkenness is a common 
offence. Prisoners may work outside prison walls ; but I 
remember no other prison that is not within walls — that 
looks from open windows on to open roads, as is here the 
case. 

' And who shaves them ?' I happened to ask one of the 
officers. ' Oh, every man has his own razor ; and they 
have knives too, though it is not allowed.' So these 
gentlemen who are always ready for faction fights, whose 
minds are as constantly engaged on the family question of 
Irish versus English, which means Protestant against 
Catholic, as were those of Father Tom Maguire and Mr. 
Pope, are as well armed for their encounters as were 
those reverend gentlemen. 

The two murderers will I presume be tried, and if 
found guilty probably hanged ; but the usual punishment 
for outbreaks of this kind seems to be, or to have 



360 



THE BEBMUDAS. 



been, flogging. A man would get some seventy lashes ; 
the Governor of the island would go down and see it 
done; and then the lacerated wretch would be locked 
up in idleness till his back would again admit of his 
bearing a shirt. ' But they'll venture their skin/ said 
the officer ; 6 they don't mind that till it comes.' i But 
do they mind being locked up alone?' I asked. He 
admitted this, but said that they had only six — I think 
six — cells, of which two or three were occupied by mad- 
men; they had no other place for lunatics. Solitary 
confinement is what these men do mind, what they do 
fear ; but here there is not the power of inflicting that 
punishment. 

What a piece of work for a man to step down upon 
— the amendment of the discipline of such a prison as 
this ! Think what the feeling among them will be when 
knives and razors are again taken from them, when their 
grog is first stopped, their liberty first controlled. They 
sleep together, a hundred or more within talking distance, 
in hammocks slung at arm's length from each other, so that 
one may excite ten, and ten fifty. Is it fair to put warders 
among such men, so well able to act, so ill able to control 
their actions ? 

6 It is a sore task,' said the controller who had fallen 
down new upon this bit of work ; 6 it is dreadful to have 
to add misery to those who are already miserable.' It is a 
very sore task ; but at the moment I hardly sympathized 
with his humanity. 

So much for the Bermuda practice of divesting these 
rogues of their roguery. And now a word as to the third 
question ; the one question most important, as I regard it, 
of their punishment. Are these men so punished as to 
deter others by the fear of similar treatment ? I presume 
it may be taken for granted that the treatment, such as it 
is, does become known and the nature of it understood 



THE BERMUDAS. 



301 



among those at home who are, or might be, cn the path 
towards it. 

Among the lower classes, from which these convicts 
do doubtless mostly come, the goods of life are chiefly 
reckoned as being food, clothing, warm shelter, and 
hours of idleness. It may seem harsh to say so thus 
plainly; but will any philanthropical lover of these 
lower classes deny the fact ? I regard myself as a phi- 
lanthropical lover of those classes, and as such I assert 
the fact ; nay, I might go further and say that it is almost 
the same of some other classes. That many have know- 
ledge of other good things, wife-love and children-love— 
heart-goods, if I may so call them ; knowledge of mind- 
goods, and soul-goods also, I do not deny. That such 
knowledge is greatly on the increase I verily believe; 
but with most among us back and belly, or rather belly 
and back, are still supreme. On belly and back must 
punishment fall when sinners such as these are to be 
punished. 

But with us — very often I fear elsewhere, but cer- 
tainly at that establishment of which we are now speaking 
— there is no such punishment at all. In scale of dietary 
among subjects of our Queen, I should say that honest 
Irish labourers stand the lowest ; they eat meat twice a 
year, potatoes and milk for six months, potatoes without 
milk for six, and fish occasionally if near the shore. Then 
come honest English labourers ; they generally have cheese, 
sometimes bacon. Next above them we may probably 
rank the inhabitants of our workhouses ; they have fresh 
meat perhaps three times a week. Whom shall we name 
next ? Without being anxious to include every shade of 
English mankind, we may say soldiers, and above them 
sailors ; then, perhaps, ordinary mechanics. There must 
be many another ascending step before we come to the 
Bermuda convict, but it would be long to name them. 



362 



THE BERMUDAS. 



Bur now let us see what the Bermuda convict eats and 
drinks every day. 

He has a pound of meat ; he has good meat too, lucky 
dog, while those wretched Bermudians are tugging out 
their teeth against tough carcasses ! He has a pound and 
three ounces of bread ; the amount may be of questionable 
advantage, as he cannot eat it all ; but he probably sells it 
lor drink. He has a pound of fresh vegetables : he has 
tea and sugar : he has a glass of grog — exactly the same 
amount that a sailor has ; and he has an allowance of 
tobacco-money, with permission to smoke at midday and 
evening, as he sits at his table or takes his noontide pleasant 
saunter. So much for belly. 

Then as to back, under which I include a man's 
sinews. The convict begins the day by going to chapel 
at a quarter-past seven ; his prayers do not take liim long, 
lor the chaplain on the occasion of my visit read small 
bits out of the Prayer-book here and there, without any 
reference to church rule or convict-establishment reason. 
Ar half-past seven he goes to his work, — if it does not 
happen to rain, in which case he sits till it ceases. He 
then works till live, with an hour and a half interval for 
his dinner, grog, and tobacco. He then has the evening 
for his supper and amusements. He thus works lor 
eight hours, barring the rain, whereas in England a day 
labourer's average is about ten. As to the comparative 
hardness of their labour there will of course be no 
doubt. The man who must work for his wages will not 
get any wages unless he works hard. The convict will 
at any rate get his wages, and of course spares his 
sinews. 

As to clothes, they have, and should have exactly what 
is best suited to health. Shoes when worn out are 
replaced. The straw hat is always decent, and just what 
one would wish to wear oneself in that climate. The 



THE BERMUDAS. 



303 



jacket and trousers have the word 'Boaz' printed over 
thern in rather ugly type ; but one would get used to 
that. The flannel shirts, &c., are all that could be 
desired. 

Their beds are hammocks like those of sailors, only 
not subject to be swung about by the winds, and not 
hung quite so closely as those of some sailors. Did any 
of my readers ever see the beds of an Irish cotter's 
establishment in county Cork ? Ah! or of some English 
cotter's establishments in Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and 
Somersetshire ? 

The hospital arrangements and attendance are excellent 
as regards the men's comfort ; though the ill arrangement 
of the buildings is conspicuous, and must be conspicuous 
to all who see them. 

And then these men, when they take their departure, 
have the wages of their labour given to them, — so much 
as they have not spent either licitly in tobacco, or illicitly 
in extra grog. They will take home with them sixteen 
pounds, eighteen pounds, or twenty pounds. Such is 
convict life in Bermuda, — unless a man chance to get 
murdered in a faction fight. 

As to many of the comforts above enumerated it will of 
course be seen that they are right. The clothes, the hospital 
arrangements, and sanitary provision are, and should be, 
better in a prison than they can, unfortunately, be at 
present among the poor who are not prisoners. But still 
they must be reckoned among the advantages which con- 
victed crime enjoys. 

It seems to be a cruel task, that of lessening the com- 
forts of men who are, at any rate, in truth not to be 
envied— are to be pitied rather, with such deep, deep 
pity! But the thing to look to, the one great object* 
is to diminish the number of those who must be sent to 
such places. Will such back and belly arrangements as 



364 



THE BEEMUDAS. 



those I have described deter men from sin by the fear of 
its consequences ? 

Why should not those felons — for such they all are, I 
presume, till the term of their punishment be over — why 
should they sleep after five? why should their diet be 
more than strong health requires ? why should their 
hours of work be light? Why that drinking of spirits 
and smoking of tobacco among men whose term of life 
in that prison should be a term of suffering ? Why those 
long twelve hours of bed and rest, spent in each other's 
company, with noise, and singing, and jollity ? Let them 
eat together, work together, walk together if you will ; but 
surely at night they should be separated ! Faction fights 
cannot take place unless the fighters have time and oppor- 
tunity to arrange them. 

I cannot but think that there should be great changes 
in this establishment, and that the punishment, w T hich 
undoubtedly is intended, should be made to fall on the 
prisoners. 'Look at the prisoners' rations!' the soldiers 
say in Bermuda when they complain of their own ; and 
who can answer them ? 

I cannot understand why the island governor should 
have authority in the prison. He from his profession 
can know little or nothing about prisons, and even for 
his own work,— or no work — is generally selected either 
from personal favour or from military motives, whereas 
the prison governor is selected, probably with much 
care, for his specialities in that line. And it must be 
as easy and as quick for the prison governor to corre- 
spond with the Home Office as for the island governor to 
correspond with the Colonial Office. There has un- 
doubtedly been mischief done by the antagonism of 
different authorities. It would seem reasonable that all 
such establishments should be exclusively under the Home 
Office. 



( 365 ) 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

From Bermuda I took a sailing vessel to New York, in 
company -with a rather large assortment of potatoes and 
onions. I had declared during my unlucky voyage from 
Kingston to Cuba that no consideration should again tempt 
me to try a sailing vessel, but such declarations always go 
for nothing. A man in his misery thinks much of his 
misery ; but as soon as he is out of it it is forgotten, or 
becomes matter for mirth. Of even a voyage in a sailing 
vessel one may say that at some future time it will perhaps 
be pleasant to remember that also. And so I embarked 
myself along with the potatoes and onions on board the 
good ship 6 Henrietta.' 

Indeed, there is no other way of getting from Bermuda 
to Xew York; or of going anywhere from Bermuda — 
except to Halifax and St. Thomas, to which places a 
steamer runs once a month. In going to Cuba I had been 
becalmed, starved, shipwrecked, and very nearly quaran- 
teened. In going to Xew York I encountered only the 
last misery. The doctor who boarded us stated that a 
vessel had come from Bermuda with a sick man, and that 
we must remain where we were till he had learnt what was 
the sick man's ailment. Our skipper, who knew the vessel 
in question, said that one of their crew had been drunk in 



366 



CONCLUSION. 



Bermuda for two or three days, and had not yet worked 
it off. But the doctor called again in the course of the 
day, and informed us that it was intermittent fever. So 
we were allowed to pass. It does seem strange that sail- 
ing vessels should be subjected to such annoyances. I 
hardly think that one of the mail steamers going into New 
York would be delayed because there was a case of inter- 
mittent fever on board another vessel from Liverpool. 

It is not my purpose to give an Englishman's ideas 
of the United States, or even of New York, at the fag end 
of a volume treating about the West Indies. On the 
United States I should like to write a volume, seeing 
that the government and social life of the people there — 
of that people who are our children — afford the most 
interesting phenomena which we find as to the new 
world ; — the best means of prophesying, if I may say so, 
what the world will next be, and what men will next do» 
There, at any rate, a new republic has become politi- 
cally great and commercially active : whereas all other 
new republics have failed in those points, as in all others. 
But this cannot be attempted now. 

From New York I went by the Hudson river to Albany, 
and on by the New York Central Railway to Niagara ; and 
though I do not mean to make any endeavour to describe 
that latter place as such descriptions should be — and 
doubtless are and have been — written, I will say one or 
two words which may be of use to any one going thither. 

The route which I took from New York would be, I 
should think, the most probable route for Englishmen. 
And as travellers will naturally go up the Hudson river 
by day, and then on from Albany by night train,* seeing 
that there is nothing to be seen at Albany, and that these 

* It would be well, however, to visit Trenton Falls by the way, 
which I did not do. They are but a short distance from Utica, a 
town on this line of railway. 



CONCLUSION. 



trains have excellent sleeping accommodation — a lady, or 
indeed a gentleman, should always take a double sleeping- 
berth, a single one costs half a dollar, and a double one^a 
dollar, — this outlay has nothing to do with the travelling 
ticket it will follow that he, she, or they will reach 
Niagara at about 4 A.M. 

In that case let them not go on to what is called the 
Niagara Falls station, but pass over at a station called the 
Suspension Bridge — very well known on the road — to the 
other or Canada side of the water, and thence go to the Clif- 
ton Hotel. There can be no doubt as to this being the site 
at which tourists should stop. It is one of those cases in 
which to see is to be sure. But if the traveller be carried 
on to Niagara Falls station, he has a long and expensive 
journey to make back : and the United States side of the 
water will be antagonistic to him in doing so. The ticket 
from Albany to Niagara cost me six dollars ; the carriage 
from Niagara to the Clifton Hotel cost me five. It was 
better to pay the five than to remain where I was ; but it 
would have been better still to have saved them. I 
mention this as, passengers to the Falls have no sort of 
intimation that they should get out at the Suspension 
Bridge ; though they are all duly shaken out of their berths, 
and inquired of whether or not they be going west 

Nothing ever disappointed me less than the Falls of 
Niagara — but my raptures did not truly commence for 
the first half-day. Their charms grow upon one like the 
conversation of a brilliant man. Their depth and breadth 
and altitude, their music, colour, and brilliancy are not 
fully acknowledged at the first moment. It may be that 
my eye is slow ; but I can never take in to its lull enjoy- 
ment any view or any picture at the first glance. I found 
this to be especially the ca^e at Niagara. It was only by 
long gazing and long listening that I was able to appreciate 
the magnitude of that waste of waters. 



3GS 



CONCLUSION. 



My book is now complete, and I am not going to 6 do 
the Falls,' but I must bid such of my readers as may go 
there to place themselves between the rocks and the 
waters of the Horse-shoe Fall 'after sunset — well after 
sunset; and there remain — say for half an hour. And 
let every man do this alone ; or if fortune have kindly 
given him such a companion, with one who may leave him 
as good as alone. But such companions are rare. 

The spot to which I allude will easily make itself known 
to him, nor will he have any need of a guide. He will 
find it, of course, before the sun shall set. And, indeed, 
as to guides, let him eschew them, giving a twenty-five 
cent piece here and there, so that these men be not ruined 
for want of custom. Into this spot I made my way, 
and stood there for an hour, dry enough. The spray did 
reach my coat, and the drops settled on my hair; but 
nevertheless, as a man not over delicate, I was dry enough. 
Then I went up, and when there was enticed to put my- 
self into a filthy oil-skin dress, hat, coat, and trousers, in 
order that I might be conducted under the Falls. Under 
the Falls ! Why ; I had been under the Falls ; but still, 
wishing to see everything, I allowed myself to be capari- 
soned. 

A sable conductor took me exactly to the spot where 
I had been before. But he took me also ten yards fur- 
ther, during which little extra journey I became soaking 
wet through, in spite of the dirty oil-cloth. The ducking 
cost me sixty cents, or half a crown. 

But I must be allowed one word as to that visit after 
sunset ; one word as to that which an obedient tourist will 
then see. In the spot to which I allude the visitor stands 
on a broad safe path, made of shingles, between the rock 
over which the water rushes and the rushing water. He 
will go in so far that the spray rising back from the bed of 
the torrent does not incommode him. With this ex- 



CONCLUSION. 



3G9 



ception, the further he can go the better ; but here also 
circumstances will clearly show hirn the spot. Unless the 
water be driven in by a very strong wind, five yards make 
the. difference between a comparatively dry coat and an 
absolutely wet one. 

And then let him stand with his back to the entrance, 
thus hiding the last glimmer of the expiring day. So 
standing he will look up among the falling waters, or 
down into the deep misty pit, from which they reascend in 
almost as palpable a bulk. The rock will be at his right 
hand, high and hard, and dark and straight, like the wall 
of some huge cavern, such as children enter in their 
dreams. For the first five minutes he will be looking 
but at the waters of a cataract,— at the waters, indeed, of 
such a cataract as we know no other, and at their interior 
curves, which elsewhere we cannot see. But by-and-by 
all this will change. He will no longer be on a shingly 
path beneath a waterfall ; but that feeling of a cavern wall 
will grow upon him, of a cavern deep, deep below roar- 
ing seas, in which the waves are there, though they do 
not enter in upon him ; or rather not the waves, but the 
very bowels of the deep ocean. He will feel as though 
the floods surrounded him, coming and going with their 
wild sounds, and he will hardly recognize that though 
among them he is not in them. And they, as they tall 
with a continual roar, not hurting the ear, but musical 
withal, will seem to move as the vast ocean waters may per- 
haps move in their internal currents. He will lose the sense 
of one continued descent, and think that they are passing 
round him in their appointed courses. The broken spray 
that rises from the depth below, rises so strongly, so 
palpably, so rapidly, that the motion in every direction 
will seem equal. And then, as he looks on, strange 
colours will show themselves through the mist ; the shades 
of gray will become green and blue, with ever and anon a 

2 B 



3,70 



CONCLUSION. 



flash of white ; and then, when some gust of wind blows 
in with greater violence, the sea-girt cavern will become 
all dark and black. Oh, my friend, let there be no one 
there to speak to thee then ; no, not even a heart's 
brother. As you stand there speak only to the waters. 

So much for Niagara. From thence, I went along Lake 
Ontario, and by the St. Lawrence to Montreal, being 
desirous of seeing the new tubular railway bridge which 
is being erected there over the St. Lawrence close to that 
town. Lake Ontario is uninteresting, being altogether 
too large for scenery, and too foggy for sight-seeing if 
there were anything to see. The travelling accommoda- 
tion, however, is excellent. The points of interest in 
the St. Lawrence are the thousand islands, among which 
the steamer glides as soon as it enters the river; and 
the rapids, of which the most singularly rapid is the one 
the vessel descends as it nears Montreal. Both of these 
are very well, but they do not require to be raved about. 
The Canadian towns at which one touches are interesting 
as being clean and large, and apparently prosperous; — also 
as being English, for we hardly reach the French part of 
Canada till we get down to Montreal. 

This tubular bridge over the St. Lawrence, which will 
complete the whole trunk line of railway from Portland 
on the coast of Maine, through the two Canadas, to the 
States of Michigan and Wisconsin, will certainly be one 
of the most wonderful works of scientific art in the 
world. It is to consist of different tubes, resting on 
piers placed in the river bed at intervals sufficient to 
provide for the free navigation of the water. Some of 
these, including the centre and largest one, are already 
erected. This bridge will be over a mile and a half in 
length, and will cost the enormous sum of one million four 
hundred thousand pounds, being but two hundred thou- 
sand pounds short of the whole cost of the Panama railway. 



CONCLUSION 



371 



I only wish that the shareholders may have a£ good B 
dividend. 

From Montreal I went down Lake Champlain bo 
Saratoga Springs, the great resort of New Yorkeri 
when the weather in the city becomes too hot lor endur- 
ance. I was there late in June, but was very glad at 
that time to sit with my toes over a fire. The country 
about Saratoga is by no means pretty. The waters, I du 
not doubt, are very healthy, and the hotels very good. 
It must, I should think, be a very dull place for persons 
who are not invalids. 

From Saratoga I returned to New York, and from 
New York sailed for Liverpool in the exceedingly good 
ship 6 Africa,' Captain Shannon. I have sailed in many 
vessels, but never in one that was more comfortable or 
better found. 

And on board this most comfortable of vessels I have 
now finished my book, as I began it on board that one, 
of all the most uncomfortable, which carried me from 
Kingston in Jamaica to Cien Fuegos in the island oi 
Cuba. 



THE END. 



Printed by W. H. Smith & Sou, 18ti, Strand, Loudon. 



f 



